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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 7, 2026

Online Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of Dorsomedial and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Cognition Decision Making, and Cognitive Dissonance

Online Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of Dorsomedial and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Cognition Decision Making, and Cognitive Dissonance

Published on: December 5, 2025

Socio-cognitive functioning in stimulant polysubstance users.

Sara L Kroll¹, Michael D Wunderli¹, Matthias Vonmoos¹

¹Experimental and Clinical Pharmacopsychology, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Zurich, Lenggstrasse 31, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland.

Drug and Alcohol Dependence

|July 14, 2018

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Polysubstance use (PSU) negatively impacts emotional empathy and social networks, with more substances leading to greater deficits. Cognitive empathy remains largely unaffected by stimulant PSU.

Keywords:

Emotion perception Emotion recognition Empathy Poly drug use Stimulants Theory-of-Mind

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Simultaneous Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

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Published on: June 5, 2017

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Psychology
Addiction Research

Background:

Polysubstance use (PSU) is linked to increased psychiatric and physical health risks.
While basal cognitive deficits are known in PSU, complex socio-cognitive impairments are less understood.
This study examines the impact of stimulant PSU on social cognition, considering cumulative effects.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the effects of stimulant polysubstance use (PSU) on social cognition.
To assess potential cumulative effects of using multiple psychotropic substances.
To identify specific socio-cognitive deficits associated with stimulant PSU.

Main Methods:

Compared 47 individuals with stimulant PSU to 59 stimulant-naïve controls.
Utilized the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET) and Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC).
Assessed social network size (SNQ) and used toxicological testing for PSU categorization.

Main Results:

Individuals with stimulant PSU exhibited lower emotional empathy and smaller social networks compared to controls.
A linear trend showed increasing substance use correlated with greater emotional empathy deficits.
Cognitive empathy (assessed by MET and MASC) was not significantly impaired by stimulant PSU.

Conclusions:

Stimulant polysubstance use (PSU) has cumulative adverse effects on emotional empathy.
Deficits in emotional empathy are a key socio-cognitive impairment in individuals with PSU.
Future interventions for PSU should target emotional empathy deficits.