Effectiveness of a Short Computer-based Emotion Recognition Training in Different Patient Groups

Compared Effectiveness of a Short Computer-based Emotion Recognition Training in Conduct Disorder and Autistic Spectrum Disorder Patients

Emotion recognition and regulation are necessary skills for social interaction. Disrupted development of these processes severely interferes with socio-emotional development. These difficulties are commonly reported in patients with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Conduct Disorder (CD), with the subsequent social/interpersonal difficulties. The available evidence suggest that impaired emotion regulation processes might underlie the aggressive behaviours frequently observed in both disorders. However, no study has yet investigated the presence of disorder-specific characteristics on emotion processing between these two disorders. Different impaired emotion recognition difficulties may underlie the reported emotion dysregulation. A practical implication of this is that given that both disorders have shown difficulties during emotion recognition processes, a short, computer-based intervention to improve emotion recognition might benefit both cases, even though their aetiologies might differ.

For ASD patients, studies training facial emotion recognition have focused on increasing the active attention to the eye region, re-directing attention to facial features to facilitate facial emotion recognition. Evidence shows positive results using computer-based emotion recognition training programs with young children and adolescents with ASD. It has also been recently suggested that emotion recognition training may be a suitable intervention for patients with CD. This would be supported by some preliminary evidence in patients with severe behavioural problems, young offenders and patients with CD + CU Traits. The overall goal of this project is to investigate the compared impact of an emotion recognition training in patients with ASD or CD. This goal can be subdivided into three separate subgoals: a) identify whether the training program is effective; b) identify whether the training program has differentiated or comparable effects between both patients groups and c) investigate individual characteristics that may help identify those individuals who would benefit most from the intervention. This information is crucial to inform the design of more efficient treatments to differentially address the specific deficits associated to the disorders.

Participants will receive six sessions (duration approx. 1h/session) of the software-based training program "Emotionen Verstehen und Ausdrücken" (EVA; Moebert & Lucke, 2019). Sessions will be administered 2-3 times/week depending on the participants' time availability. In order to objectively identify the potential benefit of the training for each participant, they will perform two separate tasks before and after the emotion recognition training, the Geneva Emotion Recognition test (GERT; Schlegel, Grandjean,& Scherer, 2014) and a social decision-making task. A comparison of their performance pre- and post-training is taken as an indicator of improvement in emotion recognition skills.

All participants have to complete the online emotion recognition training E.V.A. as well as the pre- and post training tasks: GERT and social decision making task.

The online training is focused on the strengthening of socioemotional competences and consists of different training tasks (up to 3 million) presented to the participant as mini games. These training tasks are specifically designed according to empirical findings to match the socio-emotional recognition needs of people with ASD. During these games, an adapted Elo-Algorithm allows to automatically evaluate the participants' performance and adapts the difficulty levels throughout the users' progress in the training.

Change in performance before and after the emotion recognition training, after 1 month (pre/post measure)

Change in performance before and after the emotion recognition training, after 1 month (pre/post measure)

Change in Performance before and after the emotion recognition training, after 1 month (pre/post measure)

Change in choices before and after the emotion recognition training, after 1 month (pre/post measure)

Inclusion Criteria: Diagnosis: ASD or CD German speaking IQ > 70 Age: 10-18 Exclusion Criteria: Comorbid Anxiety or Depressive disorder diagnosis IQ < 70 Insufficient German language skills Severe developmental disorders

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