Matching Cognitive Remediation to Cognitive Deficits in Substance-Abusing Inmates

This is a 2 -year NIDA funded grant (Co-PIs: Joseph P. Newman, John Curtin, and Carl Lejuez)
that examines whether recent progress in characterizing the cognitive deficits associated
with psychopathic and externalizing offenders may be used to develop better therapeutic
interventions to treat their substance abuse and other self-control problems. Inmates with
externalizing or psychopathy will receive one of two computer-based interventions to
remediate the core cognitive skills that have been linked to self-regulation deficits in the
two groups. One intervention (ACC) targets the affective cognitive control deficits
associated with externalizing offenders whereas the other intervention (ATC) targets the
attention to context deficits associated with psychopathic offenders. The specific
components of the project include: selection and randomization of inmates; pre- and
post-treatment behavioral and brain-related (ERP and Startle) measures to evaluate the
impact and specificity of the ACC and ATC treatments; and 6 sessions of behavioral (e.g.
computerized) and verbal training in ACC or ATC.