EmpaMEG: Developing a neurobiological understanding of cognitive and affective empathy in antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy- a multimodal imaging study.

People who commit violent offences are often thought to have difficulties with empathy – both in understanding what others are thinking (cognitive empathy) and in responding to others’ emotions (affective empathy). To develop better treatments, including possible medications, we need a clearer picture of how empathy works differently in these individuals and what might be happening in the brain.

This study will compare both types of empathy in violent offenders and in people with no offending history. What makes the project especially innovative is that we will also record brain activity while participants complete empathy tasks, using a new, lightweight, wearable, and completely safe brain‑scanning method called OPM‑MEG.

Alongside this, we will use other imaging techniques- structural MRI and magnetic resonance spectroscopy- in a high resolution (7T) MRI scanner, to get additional measures of brain structure and function, and conduct a series out of scanner tests or traits related to empathy, using a cutting-edge approach to analysis (computational modelling).

The study is funded by the Medical Research Council. The results will mainly be shared at academic conferences and in scientific journals, and they may also support future funding applications – potentially for studies focused on developing new treatments.

Take part

We are recruiting participants now!

• We are looking to recruit men and women aged between 18 and 59.
• Participants will be required to attend the University of Nottingham for two days.
• Travel expenses and lunch will be provided, and participants will be paid minimum wage for their time.
• The study will involve screening for mental disorders, including an interview, having an MRI brain scan, having an OPM-MEG brain scan and doing tasks using a touchscreen device.

Please contact us on via phone or email if you would like to take part:

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0115 7485865