Study Protocol

The present study is part of a larger project investigating behavioral and neural effects of social cognition training. Recruited participants first completed a clinical screening assessment to assure that they met study inclusion criteria. Participants completed a battery of behavioral and neuroimaging measures before and after training. Post-training assessment was scheduled as soon as possible following the completion of the training, typically within a week of the last training session.

Participants were allocated to one of two training groups: the social cognitive training (SCT) group or computer game control (CON) group in a modified “block” randomization procedure, such that the first block of 20 subjects was assigned to SCT and the second block of 20 subjects to the CON condition. After that subjects were alternately assigned—i.e. randomized—in pairs or in 1-to-1 fashion accounting for age and gender to SCT or CON for rest of study. As this was the first application of this social cognition training protocol, this design was used in order to assure social cognition training program was working as designed. In addition, as individuals completed the training at a time and at a location of their choosing, t. The initial allocation of a block of subjects to SCT allowed us to verify specific characteristics of SCT (e.g. length of SCT exercises) in the participant’s “real-world” settings and, thus, ensure that the CON condition matched SCT appropriately. Group assignment was double-blind, in that experimenters who tested participants post-training were blind to the participant’s condition. Participants were told that they would be doing “brain training games” and could receive one of multiple different programs but were not informed of treatment condition or study hypotheses prior to completion of the training and post-training assessment.