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A topic of interest is the way decoding and interpreting facial emotional expressions can lead to mutual understanding. Facial emotional expression is a basic source of information that guarantees the functioning of other higher cognitive processes (e.g., empathy, cooperativity, prosociality, or decision-making, among others). In this regard, hormones such as oxytocin, cortisol, and/or testosterone have been found to be important in modifying facial emotion processing. In fact, brain structures that participate in facial emotion processing have been shown to be rich in receptors for these hormones. Nonetheless, much of this research has been based on correlational designs. In recent years, a growing number of researchers have tried to carry out controlled laboratory manipulation of these hormones by administering synthetic forms of these hormones. The main objective of this study was to carry out a systematic review of studies that assess whether manipulation of these three hormones effectively promotes significant alterations in facial emotional processing. To carry out this review, PRISMA quality criteria for reviews were followed, using the following digital databases: PsycINFO, PubMed, Dialnet, Psicodoc, Web of Knowledge, and the Cochrane Library, and focusing on manuscripts with a robust research design (e.g., randomized, single- or double-blind, and/or placebo-controlled) to increase the value of this systematic review. An initial identification of 6340 abstracts and retrieval of 910 full texts led to the final inclusion of 101 papers that met all the inclusion criteria. Only about 18% of the manuscripts included reported a direct effect of hormone manipulation. In fact, emotional accuracy seemed to be enhanced after oxytocin increases, but it diminished when cortisol and/or testosterone increased. Nonetheless, when emotional valence and participants’ gender were included, hormonal manipulation reached significance (in around 53% of the articles). In fact, these studies offered a heterogeneous pattern in the way these hormones altered speed processing, attention, and memory. This study reinforces the idea that these hormones are important, but not the main modulators of facial emotion processing. As our comprehension of hormonal effects on emotional processing improves, the potential to design good treatments to improve this ability will be greater.

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Previous research has pointed out the importance of neuropsychological impairments in intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrators for reoffending/recidivism once treatment ends. However, less is known about whether substance misuse is associated with impairments or deficits, which facilitate recidivism. In this study, we first aimed to assess whether IPV perpetrators with ( n = 104) and without ( n = 120) substance misuse showed differences in specific neuropsychological variables in comparison with non-violent men ( n = 82). Second, we examined whether there were differences in IPV perpetrators’ recidivism and whether these differences were explained by neuropsychological performance. Our results revealed that IPV perpetrators with substance misuse showed worse cognitive performance than controls. Furthermore, we also found differences between IPV perpetrators without substance misuse and controls, but only in terms of executive functioning. There were no differences in neuropsychological performance between the two groups of IPV perpetrators, although those with substance misuse presented higher recidivism rates than those without substance misuse. Finally, cognitive flexibility, verbal fluency, and worse attention functioning were related to high recidivism in both groups of IPV perpetrators. This study underlies the importance of performing neuropsychological assessments during the initial stages of intervention programs for IPV perpetrators in order to design coadjutant neuropsychological/cognitive training to address not only the psychological needs (including substance misuse) of IPV perpetrators, but also their neuropsychological needs.

Even though previous research has identified the negative impact of the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration, less is known regarding the moderator factors that explain this association. In this study, we first aimed to assess whether there would be differences in terms of specific neuropsychological variables (e.g., IQ, working memory, executive functioning, and emotion decoding) between different groups of IPV perpetrators, affected or not by ADHD, and also compared with non-violent men (without ADHD). Second, we evaluated differences in dropout and recidivism among the subgroups of IPV perpetrators. Third, we assessed whether ADHD interacts with neuropsychological functioning to explain treatment compliance (dropout) and official recidivism among IPV perpetrators. Method: We administered a set of neuropsychological tests and self-reports to a group of IPV perpetrators with ADHD (n = 161), without ADHD (n = 163), and non-violent men (n = 103). Data on IPV perpetrators' treatment compliance and official recidivism were collected after treatment. Results: Our results indicated that all the groups of IPV perpetrators presented worse performance in all cognitive domains than controls. Furthermore, ADHD IPV perpetrators also showed worse performance in all cognitive domains than IPV perpetrators without ADHD, except for emotion decoding abilities. Most importantly, the combined subtype of ADHD IPV perpetrators presented the highest rate of dropout and official recidivism. Lastly, ADHD diagnosis and neuropsychological impairments separately offered a considerable explanation of treatment compliance and recidivism but their combination did not increase the amount of explained variance. Conclusions: Our study highlights the need to implement good screening processes for correctly diagnosing IPV perpetrators and, consequently, designing more effective intervention programs. La interacción entre el trastorno por déficit de atención e hiperactividad y los déficits neuropsicológicos para explicar el abandono prematuro de la intervención y la reincidencia de los maltratadores R E S U M E NObjetivo: Existen múltiples investigaciones que han identificado el impacto negativo del trastorno por déficit de atención e hiperactividad (TDAH) en la perpetración de la violencia contra la mujer en las relaciones de pareja. Sin embargo, existen menos evidencias sobre los factores moderadores que explicarían la asociación entre dichas variables. Por lo tanto, el primer objetivo de este estudio ha sido valorar si existen diferencias en variables neuropsicológicas específicas (p. ej., cociente intelectual, memoria de trabajo, funcionamiento ejecutivo y decodificación de las emociones) entre diferentes grupos de hombres que ejercen violencia contra la mujer en las relaciones de pareja (o maltratadores), afectados o no por el TDAH, y también en comparación con hombres no violentos (sin TDAH). En segundo lugar, evaluamos las diferencias en el abandono prematuro de la intervención y la...