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Socio-affective dysfunction is a risk-factor for sexual offense recidivism. However, it remains unknown whether men who have sexually offended with and without child victims show differences in eye scan paths and autonomic responsivity while viewing facial expressions of emotion. We examined differences in accuracy of emotion recognition, eye movements, and pupil dilation responses between sex offenders with child victims, sex offenders without child victims, and a group of non-offenders living in the community. Sex offenders without child victims looked for longer at the eyes than sex offenders with child victims and non-offenders. Men without child victims also scored higher for psychopathy linked disinhibition, and these traits were associated with looking longer at the eyes of afraid faces. We found no evidence for group differences in accuracy, visual attention to the mouth, or pupil dilation responses. Our findings have implications for understanding the nature of socio-affective dysfunction in sexual offenders.

Substance abuse can be associated with difficulties in emotion regulation. It has been proposed that advantageous emotion regulation is positively associated with heart rate variability , and that ...

Previous reviews exploring facial affect processing among forensic samples have focused on the presence of psychopathy and/or have not distinguished on the basis of offence type. In order to develop understandings about etiological processes implicated in different types of antisocial behavior, the principle aim of this review was to systematically explore facial affect processing in incarcerated violent offenders, relative to other non-violent offenders, sexual offenders, and non-offenders. Following a systematic search of electronic databases and subsequent manual search, eight studies were assessed as meeting inclusion criteria, of which seven obtained a quality score deemed acceptable for review. These studies examined recognition accuracy, sensitivity and response bias for seven emotion categories (including neutral) in incarcerated male offenders with a history of violence. Findings supported the presence of generally impaired facial affect processing among violent offenders, including deficits in fear, anger, and disgust. Overall the findings of the review did not support the presence of a hostile attribution bias among violent offenders. The review also highlights differences in sample composition, stimuli, and study designs in emotion recognition research. Recommendations are made for future work on facial affect processing in clinically relevant groups.

Mindfulness is linked with improved regulatory processes of attention and emotion. The potential benefits of mindfulness are vast, including more positive emotional states and diminished arousal in response to emotional stimuli. This study aims to expand of the current knowledge of the mechanisms of mindfulness by relating the latter to cardiovascular processes. The paper describes two studies which investigated the relationship of trait mindfulness to self-report measures of emotions elicited during a violent video clip and cardiovascular responses to the clip. Both studies recruited male and female participants, mainly university undergraduate students. The clip was 5-min-long and evoked mainly feelings of tension and disgust. In study 1, we found that higher scores for trait mindfulness were associated with increased scores for valence (r = .370, p = .009), indicating a more positive interpretation of the clip. In study 2, the average heart rate during the clip was lower than during the preceding (p

Economics was front and centre during the run-up to the June 2016 referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union and economists were almost unanimous that leaving would make the UK economically worse off than otherwise. Still, in the 6 months since the referendum, there has been little discernible impact on macroeconomic variables beyond a fall in the value of the pound, and the economics profession has been criticized for being overly gloomy in its predictions. This article offers some immediate reflections on the state of the economy in the run-up to the vote, on the forecasts of economists during the campaign, and on the changes to policy since. The lack of an immediate recession has been taken as evidence that the economics was wrong, but it is not evidence that leaving the EU will be economically harmless. Despite fiscal and monetary loosening most forecasters still expect growth to be slower than otherwise over the medium term. The vote and debate around it does offer some challenges for economics and we conclude with five lessons for the profession.

Oxytocin (OT) plays a critical role in the formation of long lasting social attachments across a range of mammalian species. Raising intracerebral OT levels by intranasal administration of the neuropeptide (inOT) can also have pronounced effects on human sociocognitive functioning. inOT has been associated with increasing altruism, generosity, empathy and trust while decreasing fear, anxiety and stress reactions via neural mechanisms which are yet to be fully elucidated. The observation of the prosocial effects of OT has led to speculation about the role the peptide might play in some psychiatric conditions and debate as to its potential therapeutic uses. Here we note the great similarity in the sociocognitive effects that can be induced by inOT and the effects of acute consumption of modest does of alcohol. We further reflect on how both compounds may act on limbic and prefrontal cortical structures to increase GABAergic transmission, thereby facilitating the release of prepotent responses, that is, more automatic responses which are associated with earlier developmental stages.

Background: Cerebral levels of oxytocin, elevated by intranasal administration, can increase trust, empathy and altruism, and decrease fear. We hypothesised that low levels of these characteristics (found in some personality-disordered forensic patients), would be associated with reduced oxytocin levels. Aims: To assess whether patients, with psychopathic characteristics associated with selfishness, callousness and the remorseless use of others, plus a chronically unstable, antisocial and socially deviant lifestyle, would show depressed levels of oxytocin. Method: Basal urinary oxytocin levels (an indicator of cerebral oxytocin) were assessed in 47 forensic psychiatric patients. Levels were compared with those in 21 non-patient controls, and correlated with psychopathic characteristics. Results: Oxytocin levels were markedly elevated in the patient sample compared to controls. Levels were also strongly correlated with traits associated with a socially deviant lifestyle. Conclusions: The results point to o...

It has been noted that some offenders are characterized by problems in the appropriate regulation of emotional states. Deficits in emotional regulation are particularly pertinent in sexual offenders. Therefore, therapeutic programs should, in part, focus on the development of effective strategies for the control of emotional arousal. In this review, we will provide an outline of how anatomical structures including the amygdala and regions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are involved in the appropriate regulation of emotion. It is argued in this paper that the effective control of emotional states may be helped through the adoption of a group of meditational practices, known as mindfulness techniques, which have emerged from Buddhist philosophy. These techniques involve slow, deep breathing and have been shown to affect vagal modulation of the heart and the functioning of specific neural circuits which are critically involved in emotional regulation.

The mechanisms by which acute alcohol intoxication results in increased violent behaviours are not fully understood. Pro-violent attitudes can act as a predictor of aggressive behaviour. It was hypothesised that alcohol intake would lead to shifts in attitudes to violence such that participants would express more pro-violent attitudes when drunk. This hypothesis was tested in two separate experiments with undergraduate students who were drinking in a familiar social setting. Results were the converse of what was predicted, in that the intake of alcohol resulted in decreased positive attitudes to violence. This attitudinal shift was accompanied by a significant increase in interference on an emotional Stroop test in response to words associated with conviviality implying that alcohol consumption did indeed result in an increase in pro-social feelings. These findings add support to the view that the effects of alcohol on behaviour are strongly influenced by situational and individual factors.

Psychopathic traits are linked with impairments in emotional facial expression recognition. These impairments may, in part, reflect reduced attention to the eyes of emotional faces. Although reduced attention to the eyes has been noted among children with conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits, similar findings are yet to be found in relation to psychopathic traits among adult male participants. Here we investigated the relationship of primary (selfish, uncaring) and secondary (impulsive, antisocial) psychopathic traits with attention to the eyes among adult male non-offenders during an emotion recognition task. We measured the number of fixations, and overall dwell time, on the eyes, and the mouth of male and female faces showing the six basic emotions at varying levels of intensity. We found no relationship of primary or secondary psychopathic traits with recognition accuracy. However, primary psychopathic traits were associated with a reduced number of fixations, and lower overall dwell time, on the eyes relative to the mouth across expressions, intensity, and sex. Furthermore, the relationship of primary psychopathic traits with attention to the eyes of angry and fearful faces was influenced by the sex and intensity of the expression. We also showed that a greater number of fixations on the eyes, relative to the mouth, were associated with increased accuracy for angry and fearful expression recognition. These results are the first to show effects of psychopathic traits on attention to the eyes of emotional faces in an adult male sample, and may support amygdala based accounts of psychopathy. These findings may also have methodological implications for clinical studies of emotion recognition.

Research with violent offenders has consistently shown impaired recognition of other’s facial expressions of emotion. However, the extent to which similar problems can be observed among sexual offenders remains unknown. Using a computerized task, we presented sexual and violent offenders, and non-offenders, with male and female expressions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise, morphed with neutral expressions at varying levels of intensity (10%, 55%, and 90% expressive). Based on signal detection theory, we used hit rates and false alarms to calculate the sensitivity index d-prime (d’) and criterion (c) for each emotional expression. Overall, sexual offenders showed reduced sensitivity to emotional expressions across intensity, sex, and type of expression, compared with non-offenders, while both sexual and violent offenders showed particular reduced sensitivity to fearful expressions. We also observed specific effects for high (90%) intensity female faces, with sexual offenders showing reduced sensitivity to anger compared with non-offenders and violent offenders, and reduced sensitivity to disgust compared with non-offenders. Furthermore, both sexual and violent offenders showed impaired sensitivity to high intensity female fearful expressions compared with non-offenders. Violent offenders also showed a higher criterion for classifying moderate and high intensity male expressions as fearful, indicative of a more conservative response style, compared with angry, happy, or sad. These results suggest that both types of offender show problems in emotion recognition, and may have implications for understanding the inhibition of violent and sexually violent behaviors.

Purpose: This paper combines material from domestic violence, animal aggression and neuropsychology research to construct a model to account for some domestic violence offending. The basic hypothesis is that some incidents of domestic violence can be understood in terms of the operation of primitive defence mechanisms, which are also implicated in panic attack. Perceptions of threat from an intimate partner could potentially trigger these same neuronal circuits thus releasing violent and emotionally charged responses at the spouse. Arguments: The hypothesis is based on:(a) the marked anatomical/physiological overlap of the neural substrates underlying defensive aggression and those implicated in panic attack, (b) reports of panic attack-like symptoms experienced by perpetrators during domestic violence assaults, (c) experimental evidence that demonstrates that standard physiological challenges can elicit panic/anger attacks in some domestic violence offenders (George et al., 2000). Conclusions: Panic/anger attack represents inappropriate activation of affective defensive responses due to inappropriate control of critical midbrain sites by the amygdala and/or prefrontal cortex. Panic attacks could be potentially suppressed by increasing the capacity of the prefrontal cortex to inhibit the midbrain affective defence mechanisms. However, learnt associations between stimuli and panic responses are difficult to extinguish and panic responses typically show sensitization overtime. The same may be true of the behaviour of domestic violence offenders. There is a need to establish the typology of the subgroup of offenders who perpetrate panic attack related domestic violence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract)

This paper describes what is currently known about attachment from the development, social-cognitive and biological literatures and outlines the impact on organisms given adverse development experiences that can have an effect upon attachment formation in childhood across these three literatures. We then describe the effects that 'insecure' attachment styles arising in childhood can affect brain chemistry and brain function and subsequently adult social/romantic relationships. In the paper, we note that a number of sexual offenders report adverse childhood experiences and that they possess attachment styles that, taken together, make it likely that they will either seek out intimate attachments in ways where they will have sex with children, perhaps confusing sex with intimacy or in aggressive ways as particularly happens with men who sexually assault adult women. The last section of the paper describes chemical treatment for sexual offenders, focusing on the use of selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs). We note evidence for the role of SSRIs in promoting more social/affiliative behaviors and speculate on the effects that SSRIs have in the treatment of sexual offenders by targeting areas of the social brain. Here, we would argue that it would be useful to carry out treatment where there is a combination of SSRI treatment (to promote more prosocial feelings and behaviors) in conjunction with therapy that typically addresses thoughts and behaviors, i.e., cognitive-behavioral therapy/schema-focused therapy.

Psychopathic personality traits are linked with selfish and non-cooperative responses during economical decision making games. However, the possibility that these responses may vary when responding to members of the in-group and the out-group has not yet been explored. We aimed to examine the effects of primary (selfish, uncaring) and secondary (impulsive, irresponsible) psychopathic personality traits on the responses of non-offending participants to the in-group and the out-group (defined in terms of affiliation to a UK University) across a series of economical decision making games. We asked a total of 60 participants to act as the proposer in both the dictator game and the ultimatum game. We found that across both tasks, those who scored highly for secondary psychopathic traits showed an elevated intergroup bias, making more generous offers toward members of the in-group relative to the out-group. An exaggerated intergroup bias may therefore represent a motivational factor for the antisocial behavior of those with elevated secondary psychopathic traits.

(1994). Metacognition and the Quality of Learning. Studies in Science Education: Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 21-37.

Introduction. Tourette syndrome (TS) is thought to be associated with striatal dysfunction. Changes within frontostriatal pathways in TS could lead to changes in abilities reliant on the frontal cortex. Such abilities include executive functions and aspects of social reasoning. Methods. This study aimed to investigate executive functioning and Theory of Mind (ToM; the ability to reason about mental states, e.g., beliefs and emotions), in 18 patients with TS and 20 controls. A range of tasks involving ToM were used. These required participants to make judgements about mental states based on pictures of whole faces or the eyes alone, reason about humour in cartoons that featured sarcasm, irony or slapstick style humour, and make economic decisions. The executive measures assessed inhibition and verbal fluency. Results. Patients with TS exhibited significantly poorer performance than controls on all four tasks involving ToM, even when patients with comorbid obsessive-compulsive disorder were excluded. These difficulties were despite no inhibitory deficits. Patients with TS exhibited impairment on the verbal fluency task but their performance on executive and ToM tasks was not related. Conclusions. We propose that TS is associated with changes in ToM. The observed deficits could reflect dysfunction in frontostriatal pathways involving ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

Patients with Huntington’s disease (HD) have been shown to exhibit impairment in the recognition of facial expressions such as disgust, as well as deficits in disgust responses to olfactory and gustatory stimuli. The present study investigated whether HD is associated with changes in emotional responses to a variety of visual and verbal stimuli selected to elicit core disgust, moral disgust, fear and happiness. Thirteen patients with HD and twelve controls provided emotional ratings after both reading emotion eliciting scenarios and viewing pictures from the International Affective Picture System database. Patients with HD exhibited executive dysfunction. In comparison to controls, they gave similar ratings for happy stimuli and did not differ significantly in response to core disgust or moral disgust stimuli. However, they did exhibit lower fear ratings in response to both sets of fear stimuli (pictures and scenarios), and higher anger ratings than controls in response to fear pictures. These differences in fear response could reflect dysfunction within frontostriatal pathways involving the amygdala. Changes to fear responses in HD may impair decision making and lead to increased risk-taking behaviour with significant personal or social consequences.

Patients with Huntington's disease show deficits in recognizing disgust in the facial expressions and vocal intonations of others. In this study, the authors demonstrate that these disgust-related deficits extend to foul-smelling olfactory stimuli and inappropriate combinations of taste stimuli.

Aims Studies have shown that patients with Huntington9s disease (HD) can exhibit impairment in the recognition of emotional facial expressions such as disgust. It is likely that the same neural substrates are involved in experiencing an emotion and recognising that emotion in another. However, few studies have investigated emotional experience in HD. We investigated whether HD is associated with changes in emotional responses to a variety of visual and verbal stimuli selected to elicit core disgust, moral disgust, fear and happiness. Methods Thirteen patients with HD and 12controls provided emotional ratings after reading emotion eliciting scenarios and viewing pictures from the International Affective Picture System database. Results Patients with HD did not differ to controls for happiness ratings for stimuli selected to elicit happiness, and small differences in disgust ratings for core and moral disgust stimuli failed to reach significance. However, patients did exhibit significantly lower fear ratings in response to both sets of fear stimuli (pictures and scenarios), and significantly higher anger ratings than controls in response to fear pictures. Conclusions These differences in fear response could reflect dysfunction within frontostriatal pathways involving the amygdala. Changes in fear experience in HD could affect decision making and social interaction.