Empathy, Psychopathy and Autism: Behavioural Associations and the Role of an Oxytocin Receptor Polymorphism in a Non-clinical Adult Population

February 8, 2021 updated by: St Mary's University College

Empathy, Psychopathy and Autism: Behavioural Associations and the Role of an Oxytocin Receptor Polymorphism in a Non-clinical Population

This is an investigation into the associations between psychopathic traits, autistic traits and empathy (cognitive and affective) in the general population as measured using three self report questionnaires and one behavioural task. Participants will also be genotyped for OXTR rs53576 to assess whether this mutation associates with any of the behavioural traits investigated.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Detailed Description

In clinical populations with psychopathy or autism, associations with different forms of empathy have been found. An increase in autistic traits has been found to be associated with a decrease in cognitive empathy traits but no difference in affective empathy traits, while an increase in psychopathic traits has been found to be associated with a decrease in both cognitive and affective empathy traits. The current investigation is to establish whether this previously observed relationship between cognitive empathy, affective empathy, psychopathic traits and autistic traits found in clinical populations is also found in a non-clinical population. This will be assessed by three self report questionnaires and one behavioural task (as described in 'Outcome Measures'). This investigation will also assess the potential link between of all of the traits measured and a specific SNP on the Oxytocin Receptor Gene (OXTR rs53576) to establish whether this mutation is associated with any of these behaviours.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

126

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

The study population is intended to be representative of the general population. Participants must be over 18 years of age, proficient in English comprehension and no current or previous diagnosis of psychopathy, autism or related conditions. Recruitment will not be excluded based on on ethnicity, nationality, sex, gender, religion, sexual orientation or any other characteristic.

For the analysis of the behavioural traits investigated, 128 participants (58 male, 70 female) between the ages of 19 and 68 years (median age = 26) were included in the final analysis. For the genetic aspect of the study, 96 participants (40 male, 56 female) between the ages of 19 and 68 years (median age = 26) were included in the final analysis.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • At least 18 years of age at time of participation
  • Proficient English reading comprehension

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Current or previous diagnosis of a psychopathy, autism or related conditions.
  • Not proficient in English reading comprehension

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Observational Models: Cohort
  • Time Perspectives: Prospective

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
31-item Questionnaire for Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE)
Time Frame: 20 minutes
Self-reported empathy levels. 19 items assessing cognitive empathy, 12 items assessing affective empathy. All items are rated on a Likert scale of agreement from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree) with 4 items being reverse scored prior to analysis.
20 minutes
36-item 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes' behavioural task (RMET)
Time Frame: 20 minutes
A behavioural task to assess a sub-scale of cognitive empathy, emotion recognition. RMET establishes an individual's ability to recognise the emotional state of strangers in photographs with only their eyes as visual cues, with each item consisting of a photograph of a stranger expressing a specific emotional state. Each item is scored as 1 for correct and 0 for incorrect, with a higher total score indicating a greater ability at recognising the emotional state of others.
20 minutes
26-item Levenson's Self-Report for Psychopathy (LSRP)
Time Frame: 20 minutes
A self reporting questionnaire assessing psychopathic traits without the requirement fo a clinical assessment. 16 items assess primary psychopathy and 10 items assess secondary psychopathy. All items are rated on a Likert scale of agreement of 1 (strongly agree) to 4 (strongly disagree) with 7 items having their score reversed prior to analysis.
20 minutes
50-item Autism Quotient (AQ)
Time Frame: 20 minutes
A self reporting questionnaire to assess autistic traits. The scale consists of 50 items, with 10 items fort each of the 5 subscales; social skill, attention switching, attention to detail, communication and imagination. Items are rated on a Likert scale of agreement from 0 (strongly or slightly disagree) to 1 (strongly or slightly agree), with 50% of the items being reversed prior to analysis.
20 minutes
OXTR rs53576 genotype
Time Frame: 3 days
Saliva is collected from participants via passive drool, and stabiliser provided by the DNA extraction kit manufacturer is added (SalivaGene Collection Module II; Stratec Molecular GmbH). An extraction protocol provided by the kit manufacturer is followed to extract DNA from each saliva sample (PSP® SalivaGene 17 DNA Kit 1011, Stratec Molecular GmbH). Genotyping was carried out using a StepOnePlus thermocycler (Applied Biosystems) with a predesigned TaqMan® SNP genotyping assay for rs53576 with code C__3290335_10. Each DNA sample was run in duplicate and the PCR procedure was performed following manufacturer guidelines. Results will be flagged as either AA, AG or GG genotype.
3 days

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

St Mary's University College

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Yiannis Mavrommatis, PhD, St. Mary's University, Twickenham
  • Principal Investigator: Kate Lawrence, PhD, St Marys University

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

July 1, 2017

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 31, 2018

Study Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2018

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 4, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 8, 2021

First Posted (Actual)

February 9, 2021

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 9, 2021

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 8, 2021

Last Verified

January 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • SMEC_2016-17_092

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

Study Data/Documents

  1. Study Protocol

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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