The Effects of Executive Functions and Social Cognition on Mental Health

Summary

The objective of this study is to analyze the effects of executive functions (EFs) and social-cognitive abilities on the associations between autistic traits and mental health indicators (depression, anxiety, and stress). Moreover, the study will produce online training modules for executive functions and social cognition, aimed at reducing the likelihood of adverse mental health outcomes in individuals with and without elevated autistic traits.

Therefore, four main hypotheses will be addressed:

1. Revealing the mediating role of executive functions (cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and working memory) will help predict the association between autistic traits and mental health symptoms (anxiety, depression, and stress).
2. Revealing the mediating role of social cognitive skills (cognitive empathy and affective empathy) will help predict the association between autistic traits and mental health symptoms (anxiety, depression, and stress).
3. Online training in executive functions and social cognitive skills will help develop executive functions (working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility) and social cognitive skills (cognitive empathy and affective empathy) in the current sample.
4. Online training in executive functions and social cognitive skills will promote mental health by reducing distress, depression, and anxiety symptoms in the current sample.

Participants will be between the ages of 18-35 because previous findings indicate that the age of onset of various mental health problems is between the ages of 17 and 35. Participants will be randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. Using a longitudinal design including pre-test, post-test, and follow-up conditions to test the effectiveness of combined EFs and social cognition online training for mental health symptoms.

Conditions

• Autism or Autistic Traits
• Mental Health Disorder
• Executive Dysfunction
• Social Cognition

Interventions

OTHER

MindZone

The name of the online training will be MindZone. It consists of combined game-based social cognitive and executive functions skills, and it will be presented on the training website. There is no consensus about the length of time for the training in the literature, so the average time for the training process will be used. This means that the training will last 6 weeks, 7.5 hours in total. To satisfy the training requirement, 1.15 hours (75 mins) of play will be expected from participants each week. Before each game, a brief introduction about the game will be presented and participants will get feedback about their progress. Each participant will conduct the tasks in a different random order. After 6 weeks, a post-test will be completed, and follow-up scores will be obtained after a month. All tasks were designed according to the five intervention areas: working memory, cognitive flexibility, inhibition, cognitive empathy and affective empathy based on the literature.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Ibn Haldun University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Dilruba Sönmez, MA · Ibn Haldun University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

40 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-05-20

Primary Completion

2024-10-10

Completion

2024-10-21

Countries

• Turkey (Türkiye)

Study Locations