Responding Empathically: A Question of Heart,not a Question of Skin

Empathy entails the capacities to resonate with another person’s emotions, understand his/her thoughts and feelings, separate our own thoughts and emotions from those of the observed and responding with the appropriate prosocial and helpful behavior. While there is abundant research on the neurobiological mechanisms of some components of empathy (e.g., emotional contagion), few studies have considered the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the empathic response. The present study explores psychophysiological correlates (skin conductance level and the interbeat interval) as a function of the empathic response while participants watch and respond to actors portraying emotionally laden vignettes. Forty undergraduate psychology students were each presented with 40 emotional vignettes of positive or negative valence and asked to choose among three different empathic responses while their electrodermal and cardiac responses were measured. Overall, the study shows that higher levels of additive empathy are associated with increased cardiac activity (i.e., decreased Interbeat Interval) but not electrodermal activity.     

The Relationship between Trait Emotional Intelligence and Interaction with Ostracized Others' Retaliation

Background

Regulation of emotions in others is distinct from other activities related to trait emotional intelligence in that only such behavior can directly change other people''s psychological states. Although emotional intelligence has generally been associated with prosociality, emotionally intelligent people may manipulate others'' behaviors to suit their own interests using high-level capabilities to read and manage the emotions of others. This study investigated how trait emotional intelligence was related to interacting with ostracized others who attempt retaliation.

Method

We experimentally manipulated whether two people were simultaneously ostracized or not by using an online ball-tossing game called Cyberball. Eighty university students participated in Cyberball for manipulating ostracism and a “recommendation game,” a variation of the ultimatum game for assessing how to interact with others who attempt retaliation, with four participants. After the recommendation game, participants rated their intention to retaliate during the game.

Results

People with higher interpersonal emotional intelligence were more likely to recommend that the ostracized other should inhibit retaliation and maximize additional rewards when they have a weaker intention to retaliate. However, they were more likely to recommend that the ostracized other should retaliate against the ostracizers when they have a stronger intention to retaliate.

Conclusion

This is the first laboratory study that empirically reveals that people with high interpersonal emotional intelligence influence others'' emotions based on their own goals contrary to the general view. Trait emotional intelligence itself is neither positive nor negative, but it can facilitate interpersonal behaviors for achieving goals. Our study offers valuable contributions for the refinement of the trait emotional intelligence concept in the respect of its social function.     

Emotions in farm animals: a new approach to animal welfare in applied ethology

One of the major topics of applied ethology is the welfare of animals reared by humans. Welfare can be defined as a state of harmony between an individual and its environment. Any marked deviation from this state, if perceived by the individual, results in a welfare deficit due to negative emotional experiences. In humans, verbal language helps to assess emotional experiences. In animals, only behavioural and physiological measurements help to detect emotions. However, how to interpret these responses in terms of emotional experiences remains an open question. The information on the cognitive abilities of farm animals, which are available but scattered, could help the understanding of their emotions. We propose a behavioural approach based on cognitive psychology: emotions can be investigated in farm animals in terms of the individual's appraisal of the situation. This evaluative process depends on: (a) the intrinsic characteristics of the eliciting event (suddenness, novelty, pleasantness); (b) the degree of conflict of that event with the individual's needs or expectations; and (c) the individual's coping possibilities offered by the environment. The result of such an evaluation determines the negative versus positive emotions. We propose an analysis of the emotional repertoire of farm animals in terms of the relationship between the evaluative process of the event on the one hand and the behavioural and physiological responses on the other hand.     

Psychosocial stressor effects on cortisol and ghrelin in emotional and non-emotional eaters: Influence of anger and shame

Food consumption in stressful situations vary as a function of individual difference factors (e.g., emotional vs. non-emotional eating), and may be related to hormonal responses elicited by the stressful event. These hormonal responses may be tied to specific emotions elicited by the stressful event. The present investigation examined the emotional and hormonal (cortisol, ghrelin) responses of high and low emotional eaters following a laboratory stressor (Trier Social Stress Test; TSST). Women (n = 48) either high or low in emotional eating status were tested in a TSST or served as controls during which blood samples were taken for analysis of cortisol and ghrelin, both of which have been implicated in eating and in response to stressors. The TSST promoted elevated cortisol levels, being somewhat more pronounced in emotional than in non-emotional eaters. Both shame and anger were provoked by the TSST, and although both these emotions were correlated with cortisol levels, only anger significantly mediated the relationship between the stressor and cortisol levels. As well, baseline ghrelin levels in low emotional eaters exceeded that of high emotional eaters, and increased moderately in response to the stressor situation, irrespective of emotional eating status. Interestingly, when provided with food, ghrelin levels declined in the non-emotional eaters, but not in emotional eaters. The possibility is offered that the lack of a decline of ghrelin in emotional eaters may sustain eating in these individuals.     

Surgeons’ Emotional Experience of Their Everyday Practice - A Qualitative Study

Background

Physicians’ emotions affect both patient care and personal well-being. Surgeons appear at particularly high risk, as evidenced by the high rate of burnout and the alarming consequences in both their personal lives and professional behavior. The aim of this qualitative study is to explore the emotional experiences of surgeons and their impact on their surgical practice.

Methods and Findings

27 purposively selected liver and pancreatic surgeons from 10 teaching hospitals (23 men, 4 women) participated. Inclusion took place until data saturation was reached. Data were collected through individual interviews and thematically analyzed independently by 3 researchers (a psychologist, a psychiatrist, and a surgeon). 7 themes emerged from the analysis, categorized in 3 main or superordinate themes, which described surgeons’ emotional experience before, during, and after surgery. Burdensome emotions are present throughout all 3 periods (and invade life outside the hospital)—surgeons’ own emotions, their perception of patients’ emotions, and their entwinement. The interviewees described the range of emotional situations they face (with patients, families, colleagues), the influence of the institutional framework (time pressure and fatigue, cultural pressure to satisfy the ideal image of a surgeon), as well as the emotions they feel (including especially anxiety, fear, distress, guilt, and accountability).

Conclusions

Emotions are ubiquitous in surgeons’ experience, and their exposure to stress is chronic rather than acute. Considering emotions only in terms of their relations to operative errors (as previous studies have done) is limiting. Although complications are quite rare events, the concern for possible complications is an oppressive experience, regardless of whether or not they actually occur.     

Dissociation between Emotional Remapping of Fear and Disgust in Alexithymia

There is growing evidence that individuals are able to understand others’ emotions because they “embody” them, i.e., re-experience them by activating a representation of the observed emotion within their own body. One way to study emotion embodiment is provided by a multisensory stimulation paradigm called emotional visual remapping of touch (eVRT), in which the degree of embodiment/remapping of emotions is measured as enhanced detection of near-threshold tactile stimuli on one’s own face while viewing different emotional facial expressions. Here, we measured remapping of fear and disgust in participants with low (LA) and high (HA) levels of alexithymia, a personality trait characterized by a difficulty in recognizing emotions. The results showed that fear is remapped in LA but not in HA participants, while disgust is remapped in HA but not in LA participants. To investigate the hypothesis that HA might exhibit increased responses to emotional stimuli producing a heightened physical and visceral sensations, i.e., disgust, in a second experiment we investigated participants’ interoceptive abilities and the link between interoception and emotional modulations of VRT. The results showed that participants’ disgust modulations of VRT correlated with their ability to perceive bodily signals. We suggest that the emotional profile of HA individuals on the eVRT task could be related to their abnormal tendency to be focalized on their internal bodily signals, and to experience emotions in a “physical” way. Finally, we speculated that these results in HA could be due to a enhancement of insular activity during the perception of disgusted faces.     

When Early Experiences Build a Wall to Others’ Emotions: An Electrophysiological and Autonomic Study

Facial expression of emotions is a powerful vehicle for communicating information about others’ emotional states and it normally induces facial mimicry in the observers. The aim of this study was to investigate if early aversive experiences could interfere with emotion recognition, facial mimicry, and with the autonomic regulation of social behaviors. We conducted a facial emotion recognition task in a group of “street-boys” and in an age-matched control group. We recorded facial electromyography (EMG), a marker of facial mimicry, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of the recruitment of autonomic system promoting social behaviors and predisposition, in response to the observation of facial expressions of emotions. Results showed an over-attribution of anger, and reduced EMG responses during the observation of both positive and negative expressions only among street-boys. Street-boys also showed lower RSA after observation of facial expressions and ineffective RSA suppression during presentation of non-threatening expressions. Our findings suggest that early aversive experiences alter not only emotion recognition but also facial mimicry of emotions. These deficits affect the autonomic regulation of social behaviors inducing lower social predisposition after the visualization of facial expressions and an ineffective recruitment of defensive behavior in response to non-threatening expressions.     

Anthropomorphism and 'mental welfare' of fishes

Anthropomorphism, the use of human characteristics as a foundation for interpreting behavior and mental capacities of animals, is a bias undermining our understanding of other species, especially species as evolutionarily distant from humans as fishes. Anthropomorphism is not justified by allusions to evolutionary continuity among vertebrates, because no living vertebrate was ever a descendant of humans, so none could have inherited human traits. Nonetheless, it has recently been claimed that fishes are capable of conscious experiences of pain and emotional feelings and that mental welfare is an important issue for fishes. This paper shows that the evidence supporting claims for experiences of pain or conscious emotions by fishes is conceptually and methodologically flawed. In addition, the paper shows that the natural history and behavior of diverse fish species is inconsistent with a presumption of human-like awareness. This behavioral evidence is in accord with neurobiological observations showing that fishes are very different from us and are unlikely to have a capacity for awareness of pain or emotional feelings that meaningfully resemble our own. The factors that are detrimental to fish welfare have been well delineated by valid, objective indicators of physiological and behavioral well-being. This knowledge should guide welfare decisions. An empirical and non-anthropomorphic examination of diverse fishes and their adaptations should be the foundation for welfare decisions that would be truly beneficial to fishes and humans alike.     

Comparison of emotion recognition from facial expression and music

The recognition of basic emotions in everyday communication involves interpretation of different visual and auditory clues. The ability to recognize emotions is not clearly determined as their presentation is usually very short (micro expressions), whereas the recognition itself does not have to be a conscious process. We assumed that the recognition from facial expressions is selected over the recognition of emotions communicated through music. In order to compare the success rate in recognizing emotions presented as facial expressions or in classical music works we conducted a survey which included 90 elementary school and 87 high school students from Osijek (Croatia). The participants had to match 8 photographs of different emotions expressed on the face and 8 pieces of classical music works with 8 offered emotions. The recognition of emotions expressed through classical music pieces was significantly less successful than the recognition of emotional facial expressions. The high school students were significantly better at recognizing facial emotions than the elementary school students, whereas girls were better than boys. The success rate in recognizing emotions from music pieces was associated with higher grades in mathematics. Basic emotions are far better recognized if presented on human faces than in music, possibly because the understanding of facial emotions is one of the oldest communication skills in human society. Female advantage in emotion recognition was selected due to the necessity of their communication with the newborns during early development. The proficiency in recognizing emotional content of music and mathematical skills probably share some general cognitive skills like attention, memory and motivation. Music pieces were differently processed in brain than facial expressions and consequently, probably differently evaluated as relevant emotional clues.     

Measuring Emotional Contagion in Social Media

Social media are used as main discussion channels by millions of individuals every day. The content individuals produce in daily social-media-based micro-communications, and the emotions therein expressed, may impact the emotional states of others. A recent experiment performed on Facebook hypothesized that emotions spread online, even in absence of non-verbal cues typical of in-person interactions, and that individuals are more likely to adopt positive or negative emotions if these are over-expressed in their social network. Experiments of this type, however, raise ethical concerns, as they require massive-scale content manipulation with unknown consequences for the individuals therein involved. Here, we study the dynamics of emotional contagion using a random sample of Twitter users, whose activity (and the stimuli they were exposed to) was observed during a week of September 2014. Rather than manipulating content, we devise a null model that discounts some confounding factors (including the effect of emotional contagion). We measure the emotional valence of content the users are exposed to before posting their own tweets. We determine that on average a negative post follows an over-exposure to 4.34% more negative content than baseline, while positive posts occur after an average over-exposure to 4.50% more positive contents. We highlight the presence of a linear relationship between the average emotional valence of the stimuli users are exposed to, and that of the responses they produce. We also identify two different classes of individuals: highly and scarcely susceptible to emotional contagion. Highly susceptible users are significantly less inclined to adopt negative emotions than the scarcely susceptible ones, but equally likely to adopt positive emotions. In general, the likelihood of adopting positive emotions is much greater than that of negative emotions.     

Emotion makes a difference: Induced sadness reduces preschool boys' sharing behavior

This study investigated how external negative emotional stimuli influenced 5–6-year-old children's (N?=?98) sharing behavior. Children were asked to watch a video that induced either sad or neutral emotion and then share stickers simultaneously with poor and wealthy recipients. Compared to the neutral emotion condition, boys shared less, and offered more self-focused reasons for sharing after being induced sad emotions; girls however, shared equally, and provided self-focused and other-focused reasons equally in both emotional conditions. Results indicated that sadness increased children's tendency to defend their own interest in boys but not in girls, which supports the evolutionary “male warrior hypothesis”. In addition, although children indicated that they liked the wealthy recipient better than the poor one, they shared equally between the two recipients, suggesting an early development of equality concern and charity behavior (i.e., care for the disadvantaged individuals). These findings revealed gender differences in the socio-affective processes underlying children's resource allocation and added developmental evidence for the adaptive function of negative emotions.     

Emotions and actions associated with norm-breaking events

Norms have a strong influence on human social interactions, but the emotions and actions associated with norm-breaking events have not been systematically studied. We asked subjects to imagine themselves in a conflict situation and then to report how they would feel, how they would act, and how they would imagine the feelings and actions of their opponent. By altering the fictional scenario that they were asked to imagine (weak vs. strong norm) and the perspective of the subject (norm-breaker vs. the one whose norm has been violated), the emotions and actions associated with norm-breaking events could be examined. We tested the following hypotheses: (1) norms create emotional asymmetries that resolve conflicts in otherwise symmetrical contest situations; (2) sex differences exist in response to norm-breaking events, with males more prone to violence than females; (3) individual differences exist in response to norm-breaking events, along the lines predicted by theoretical models; and (4) emotions and actions attributed to one’s opponent are distorted in ways that can be interpreted as adaptive for the believer. In addition to these basic hypotheses, we address more subtle issues concerning the particular emotions provoked by norm-breaking events, the degree to which emotional response is fine-tuned to the situation, and the degree to which emotional response correlates with anticipated behavioral response. We discuss the relevance of our study to the general study of emotions and the use of fictional scenarios as a research method in addition to the study of norms from an evolutionary perspective.     

The Power of an Infant's Smile: Maternal Physiological Responses to Infant Emotional Expressions

Infant emotional expressions, such as distress cries, evoke maternal physiological reactions. Most of which involve accelerated sympathetic nervous activity. Comparatively little is known about effects of positive infant expressions, such as happy smiles, on maternal physiological responses. This study investigated how physiological and psychological maternal states change in response to infants’ emotional expressions. Thirty first-time mothers viewed films of their own 6- to 7-month-old infants’ affective behavior. Each observed a video of a distress cry followed by a video showing one of two expressions (randomly assigned): a happy smiling face (smile condition) or a calm neutral face (neutral condition). Both before and after the session, participants completed a self-report inventory assessing their emotional states. The results of the self-report inventory revealed no effects of exposure to the infant videos. However, the mothers in the smile condition, but not in the neutral condition, showed deceleration of skin conductance. These findings demonstrate that the mothers who observed their infants smiling showed decreased sympathetic activity. We propose that an infant’s positive emotional expression may affect the branch of the maternal stress-response system that modulates the homeostatic balance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.     

The constructive nature of affective vision: seeing fearful scenes activates extrastriate body area

It is part of basic emotions like fear or anger that they prepare the brain to act adaptively. Hence scenes representing emotional events are normally associated with characteristic adaptive behavior. Normally, face and body representation areas in the brain are modulated by these emotions when presented in the face or body. Here, we provide neuroimaging evidence (using functional magnetic resonance imaging) that the extrastriate body area (EBA) is highly responsive when subjects observe isolated faces presented in emotional scenes. This response of EBA to threatening scenes in which no body is present gives rise to speculation about its function. We discuss the possibility that the brain reacts proactively to the emotional meaning of the scene.     

The Effects of Measuring Emotion: Physiological Reactions to Emotional Situations Depend on whether Someone Is Asking

Measurement effects exist throughout the sciences–the act of measuring often changes the properties of the observed. We suggest emotion research is no exception. The awareness and conscious assessment required by self-report of emotion may significantly alter emotional processes. In this study, participants engaged in a difficult math task designed to induce anger or shame while their cardiovascular responses were measured. Half of the participants were asked to report on their emotional states and appraise their feelings throughout the experiment, whereas the other half completed a control questionnaire. Among those in the anger condition, participants assigned to report on their emotions exhibited qualitatively different physiological responses from those who did not report. For participants in the shame condition, there were no significant differences in physiology based on the self-report manipulation. The study demonstrates that the simple act of reporting on an emotional state may have a substantial impact on the body’s reaction to an emotional situation.     

Evidence for Unintentional Emotional Contagion Beyond Dyads

Little is known about the spread of emotions beyond dyads. Yet, it is of importance for explaining the emergence of crowd behaviors. Here, we experimentally addressed whether emotional homogeneity within a crowd might result from a cascade of local emotional transmissions where the perception of another’s emotional expression produces, in the observer''s face and body, sufficient information to allow for the transmission of the emotion to a third party. We reproduced a minimal element of a crowd situation and recorded the facial electromyographic activity and the skin conductance response of an individual C observing the face of an individual B watching an individual A displaying either joy or fear full body expressions. Critically, individual B did not know that she was being watched. We show that emotions of joy and fear displayed by A were spontaneously transmitted to C through B, even when the emotional information available in B’s faces could not be explicitly recognized. These findings demonstrate that one is tuned to react to others’ emotional signals and to unintentionally produce subtle but sufficient emotional cues to induce emotional states in others. This phenomenon could be the mark of a spontaneous cooperative behavior whose function is to communicate survival-value information to conspecifics.     

The Emotional and Attentional Impact of Exposure to One's Own Body in Bulimia Nervosa: A Physiological View

Background

Body dissatisfaction is the most relevant body image disturbance in bulimia nervosa (BN). Research has shown that viewing one''s own body evokes negative thoughts and emotions in individuals with BN. However, the psychophysiological mechanisms involved in this negative reaction have not yet been clearly established. Our aim was to examine the emotional and attentional processes that are activated when patients with BN view their own bodies.

Method

We examined the effects of viewing a video of one''s own body on the physiological (eye-blink startle, cardiac defense, and skin conductance) and subjective (pleasure, arousal, and control ratings) responses elicited by a burst of 110 dB white noise of 500 ms duration. The participants were 30 women with BN and 30 healthy control women. The experimental task consisted of two consecutive and counterbalanced presentations of the auditory stimulus preceded, alternatively, by a video of the participant''s own body versus no such video.

Results

The results showed that, when viewing their own bodies, women with BN experienced (a) greater inhibition of the startle reflex, (b) greater cardiac acceleration in the first component of the defense reaction, (c) greater skin conductance response, and (d) less subjective pleasure and control combined with greater arousal, compared with the control participants.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that, for women with BN, peripheral-physiological responses to self-images are dominated by attentional processes, which provoke an immobility reaction caused by a dysfunctional negative response to their own body.     

额叶EEG偏侧化预测情绪灵活性

随着社会竞争的日益加剧,人们在生活、学习、工作中都可能遇到各种与情绪有关的事件,如何根据情境的要求和个人的需要对情绪进行灵活性的反应,对每个人而言都至关重要.情绪灵活性的研究已成为情绪心理学、临床心理学、健康心理学等多个领域热衷讨论的课题.研究发现,左侧和右侧前额叶皮层半球不同程度地涉及加工和调节对情绪刺激的情绪反应,因此,额叶脑电图(EEG)偏侧化与情绪灵活性存在密切关系.但是,额叶EEG偏侧化是否是情绪灵活性的一个客观指标,以及额叶EEG偏侧化怎样预测情绪灵活性,至今仍不清楚.本研究测量了通过情绪电影范式诱发被试产生高兴、悲伤、愤怒、恐惧、厌恶等情绪过程中的额叶EEG活动.结果显示,情绪灵活性的激活模式反映的是情绪的动机维度,而不是情绪的效价维度.在静息状态下,对于与接近动机相关的情绪,额叶EEG左侧化的个体的左侧化程度增加;对于与回避动机相关的情绪,其左侧化程度降低.与之相对,静息状态额叶EEG右侧化的个体,无论对于与趋近动机相关的情绪还是与回避动机相关的情绪,额叶EEG偏侧化的程度没有发生改变.研究表明,额叶EEG偏侧化模式能够预测情绪灵活性,额叶EEG左侧化的个体有更灵活的情绪反应,额叶EEG右侧化的个体则有相对不灵活的情绪反应.     

Behavioral responses of nesting female dark‐eyed juncos Junco hyemalis to hetero‐ and conspecific passerine preen oils

Several studies have suggested a greater role for olfactory cues in avian social interactions than previously recognized, but few have explicitly investigated the effect of odor on parental behavior. We present results from a preliminary study in which we applied hetero‐ and conspecific preen gland secretions, which are known to contain volatile compounds, to the nests and eggs of incubating female dark‐eyed juncos Junco hyemalis. The responses to these two conditions were compared to the responses of females whose nests were treated with their own preen oil as a control condition, and to females whose nests were treated with the vehicle only. We found that females significantly reduced incubation bout length, a form of parental care, in response to alien secretions, more so if they came from a heterospecific than a conspecific. Females did not reduce incubation bout length in response to their own preen oil or to a vehicle‐only control. These results suggest that odors in the nest may influence avian parental care. However, the behavioral change was only temporary and had no effect on later hatching success. In our study population, brood parasitism by brown‐headed cowbirds is common, but resulting nest abandonment is rare; juncos are frequently able to successfully breed even with cowbird nestlings in their nests. Thus, we suggest that more extreme behavioral responses to alien odor, such as nest abandonment or egg ejection, may not be adaptive and should not be expected.