Cognitive Decline as a Result of Incarceration and the Protective Effects of Mindfulness: A Randomized Controlled Trial

• In Event: Biosocial Research on Aggression and Delinquency of Young People

Abstract

This study tests the effects of incarceration on neurocognitive performance, and whether a combined mindfulness intervention/ cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) intervention can buffer against any further neurocognitive decline. Incarcerated youths aged 16-18 were randomly assigned to either a one-month Mindfulness Intervention supplemented with CBT (N = 110), or an active Control group (attitudinal intervention on violence and substance use: N = 88). Neurocognitive functioning was assessed at both baseline and end of treatment using an emotional go/no-go task reflecting cognitive control and emotion regulation functions that are predicated on fronto-limbic brain functioning. The entire offender sample was also compared to non-institutional controls on baseline functioning.

Offenders performed poorer than non-institutionalized controls. Within the offender sample, poorer neurocognitive performance at baseline was associated with having spent more time in prison. Neurocognitive functioning in prison declined from baseline to post-treatment. The treatment group x time interaction was marginally significant. While Controls showed a significant decline from pre- to post-treatment, performance did not significantly decline in the Mindfulness / CBT group. Findings are, to our knowledge, amongst the first to empirically document neurocognitive decline with increasing incarceration, and to document that a combined MFI / CBT can ameliorate further decline.

Authors

• Rebecca Umbach, University of Pennsylvania

• Adrian Raine, University of Pennsylvania

• Noelle R. Leonard, New York University