Combining emotion recognition training with oxytocin administration: A psychobiological approach

Youth with antisocial behavior often exhibit deficits in emotion recognition that contribute to aggression and delinquency. The Cardiff Emotion Recognition Training (CERT) was recently developed and had a positive effect on improving emotion recognition skills and reducing crime severity in juvenile offenders. In addition, oxytocin administration can also improve emotion recognition in healthy samples and residential youth. The aim of this project is to combine the CERT with oxytocin administration and examine whether oxytocin administration can enhance the effectiveness of CERT on emotional skills in residential and forensic youth. As a secondary objective, we will investigate whether the combined training can reduce aggression and delinquency and whether the effectiveness of the intervention is moderated by psychological and environmental factors. The project has a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-subjects design. During the training, participants will be randomly allocated to either oxytocin or placebo condition. Participants in oxytocin condition will receive the CERT in combination with oxytocin before each treatment session, whereas participants in the placebo condition will receive the CERT with placebo. This study will elucidate whether biological agents can enhance the effectiveness of psychological intervention paving the way for novel psychobiological treatment approaches.

We hypothesize that oxytocin administration will enhance the effectiveness of the Cardiff Emotion Recognition Training

Screening, Baseline measurement, three training sessions, post-measurement, follow-up

Cardiff Emotion Recognition Training and oxytocin administration