Social working memory (SWM)-the ability to maintain and manipulate social information in the brain-plays a crucial role in social interactions. However, research on SWM is still in its infancy and is often treated as a unitary construct. In the present study, we propose that SWM can be conceptualized as having two relatively independent components: "externally oriented SWM" (e-SWM) and "internally oriented SWM" (i-SWM). To test this external-internal hypothesis, participants were tasked with memorizing and ranking either facial expressions (e-SWM) or personality traits (i-SWM) associated with images of faces. We then examined the neural correlates of these two SWM components and their functional roles in empathy. The results showed distinct activations as the e-SWM task activated the postcentral and precentral gyri while the i-SWM task activated the precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex and superior frontal gyrus. Distinct multivariate activation patterns were also found within the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex in the two tasks. Moreover, partial least squares analyses combining brain activation and individual differences in empathy showed that e-SWM and i-SWM brain activities were mainly correlated with affective empathy and cognitive empathy, respectively. These findings implicate distinct brain processes as well as functional roles of the two types of SWM, providing support for the internal-external hypothesis of SWM.
Humans ; Memory, Short-Term/physiology* ; Male ; Female ; Empathy/physiology* ; Young Adult ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Adult ; Brain/diagnostic imaging* ; Brain Mapping ; Facial Expression ; Social Behavior ; Facial Recognition/physiology* ; Social Perception ; Personality/physiology*

Empathy is crucial for communication and survival for individuals. Whether empathy in pain contagion shows sex differences and its underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we report that pain contagion can occur in stranger female rats, but not in stranger males. Blocking oxytocin receptors in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) suppressed pain contagion in female strangers, while oxytocin administration induced pain contagion in male strangers. In vitro, corticosterone reduces neuronal activation by oxytocin. During male stranger interactions, higher corticosterone decreased oxytocin receptor-positive neuronal activity in the ACC, suppressing pain contagion. These findings highlight the role of oxytocin in pain contagion and suggest that sex differences in empathy may be determined by the balance of oxytocin and corticosterone in the ACC. This study suggests an approach for the treatment of certain mental disorders associated with abnormal empathy, such as autism and depression.
Animals ; Oxytocin/pharmacology* ; Gyrus Cinguli/drug effects* ; Male ; Female ; Corticosterone/pharmacology* ; Empathy/drug effects* ; Sex Characteristics ; Receptors, Oxytocin/antagonists & inhibitors* ; Pain/psychology* ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Neurons/metabolism*

In this study, we investigated how empathic neural responses unfold over time in different empathy networks when viewing same-race and other-race individuals in dynamic painful conditions. We recorded magnetoencephalography signals from Chinese adults when viewing video clips showing a dynamic painful (or non-painful) stimulation to Asian and White models' faces to trigger painful (or neutral) expressions. We found that perceived dynamic pain in Asian models modulated neural activities in the visual cortex at 100 ms-200 ms, in the orbitofrontal and subgenual anterior cingulate cortices at 150 ms-200 ms, in the anterior cingulate cortex around 250 ms-350 ms, and in the temporoparietal junction and middle temporal gyrus around 600 ms after video onset. Perceived dynamic pain in White models modulated activities in the visual, anterior cingulate, and primary sensory cortices after 500 ms. Our findings unraveled earlier dynamic activities in multiple neural circuits in response to same-race (vs other-race) individuals in dynamic painful situations.
Adult ; Humans ; Brain Mapping ; Pain ; Empathy ; Racism ; Gyrus Cinguli/physiology* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Brain/physiology*

OBJECTIVES: To determine the impact of scenario-based lecture and personalized video feedback on anesthesia residents' communication skills during preoperative visits. METHODS: A total of 24 anesthesia residents were randomly divided into a video group and a control group. Residents in both groups took part in a simulated interview and received a scenario-based lecture on how to communicate with patients during preoperative visits. Afterwards, residents in the video group received personalized video feedback recorded during the simulated interview. One week later all the residents undertook another simulated interview. The communication skills of all the residents were assessed using the Consultation and Relational Empathy measure (CARE) scale by two examiners and one standardized patient (SP), both of whom were blinded to the group allocation. RESULTS: CARE scores were comparable between the two groups before training, and significantly improved after training in both groups (all P < 0.05). The video group showed significantly greater increase in CARE score after the training than the control group, especially assessed by the SP (t = 6.980, P <0.001). There were significant correlations between the examiner-assessed scores and SP-assessed scores (both P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Scenario-based lectures with simulated interviews provide a good method for training communication skills of anesthesia residents, and personalized video feedback can enhance their performance on showing empathy during preoperative interview.
Humans ; Internship and Residency ; Empathy ; Communication ; Anesthesiology/education* ; Male ; Female ; Adult ; Video Recording ; Feedback ; Clinical Competence

Radical gastrectomy combined with perioperative comprehensive treatment is the main curable strategy for gastric cancer patients, and postoperative complications are the issue that gastric surgeons have to face. Complications not only affect the short-term postoperative recovery, but also facilitate tumor recurrence or metastasis, thus resulting in poor prognosis. Therefore, unifying the diagnostic criteria for postoperative complications, bringing the surgeons' attention to complications, and understanding the potential mechanism of complications undermining long-term survival, will be helpful to the future improvement of the clinical diagnosis and treatment as well as prognosis for gastric cancer patients in China. Meanwhile, surgeons should constantly hone their operative skills, improve their sense of responsibility and empathy, and administer individualized perioperative management based on patients' general conditions, so as to minimize the occurrence of postoperative complications and their influence on prognosis.
Humans ; Stomach Neoplasms/pathology* ; Empathy ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local/surgery* ; Prognosis ; Gastrectomy/methods* ; Postoperative Complications/etiology* ; Surgeons ; Retrospective Studies

People as third-party observers, without direct self-interest, may punish norm violators to maintain social norms. However, third-party judgment and the follow-up punishment might be susceptible to the way we frame (i.e., verbally describe) a norm violation. We conducted a behavioral and a neuroimaging experiment to investigate the above phenomenon, which we call the "third-party framing effect". In these experiments, participants observed an anonymous perpetrator deciding whether to keep her/his economic benefit while exposing a victim to a risk of physical pain (described as "harming others" in one condition and "not helping others" in the other condition), then they had a chance to punish that perpetrator at their own cost. Our results showed that the participants were more willing to execute third-party punishment under the harm frame compared to the help frame, manifesting a framing effect. Self-reported anger toward perpetrators mediated the relationship between empathy toward victims and the framing effect. Meanwhile, activation of the insula mediated the relationship between mid-cingulate cortex activation and the framing effect; the functional connectivity between these regions significantly predicted the size of the framing effect. These findings shed light on the psychological and neural mechanisms of the third-party framing effect.
Empathy ; Female ; Gyrus Cinguli ; Humans ; Neuroimaging ; Pain ; Punishment/psychology*

Objective: To systematically evaluate the impact of psychological intervention on nursing staff' compassion fatigue. Methods: From March to May 2020, PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMbase, Web of Science, CNKI, VIP, Wanfang and other databases were electronically searched to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the influence of psychological intervention on nursing staff' compassion fatigue with the main search terms including compassion fatigue, nurs*, psychological intervention, mental intervention, RCT and so on from inception to March 31, 2020. Screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. The Stata 16.0 software was used to calculate the pooled effectiveness of psychological intervention on nursing staff' compassion fatigue. Results: All 13 RCTs were enrolled, including 940 nursing staff. Meta-analysis results demonstrated that the psychological intervention group was superior to the control group in the improvement of the compassion fatigue score (SMD=-0.96, 95%CI: -1.17-0.74, P=0.001) , compassion satisfaction score (SMD=0.61, 95%CI: 0.45-0.77, P=0.002) , burnout score (SMD=-0.46, 95%CI: -0.62-0.29, P=0.006) , secondary trauma score (SMD=-0.40, 95%CI: -0.68-0.12, P=0.020) , and the difference was statistically significant. Subgroup analysis found that the psychological intervention group was more effective than the control group in improving compassion satisfaction score, reducing burnout score and secondary trauma score, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05) in different intervention time (<8 weeks and ≥8 weeks) and intervention methods. Conclusion: The psychological intervention can improve the level of compassion satisfaction, and reduce the compassion fatigue among nursing staff, and have a certain preventive effect on compassion fatigue.
Burnout, Professional/prevention & control* ; Compassion Fatigue/prevention & control* ; Empathy ; Humans ; Nursing Staff ; Psychosocial Intervention ; Quality of Life

Humans ; Empathy ; Brain Mapping ; Pain

Caring is the fundamental essence of nursing practice. Swanson's theory of caring provides the process of care for women who have experienced miscarriage. However, there is a gap in theory and knowledge in providing care to fathers experiencing a miscarriage. Studies have shown that the experience of fathers during a miscarriage is different from their wives. According to Jones et al (2019), fathers' experience during a neonatal loss is different from their partners. They feel isolated. Thus, men feel that they are disconnected from their partners, and also are not involved in the caring process, are overwhelmed by the situation, fathers feel that the role fathers play as a protector for their partner was not done well and they experience a lack of support from healthcare providers during that period. This concept of paternal care during a miscarriage is to help fathers who are experiencing neonatal loss by applying the appropriate nursing action to provide the necessary nursing care. The concept analysis methodology from Walker and Avant (2005) would define the concept, attributes, antecedents, consequences, cases, and empirical referent on paternal care during a miscarriage. This paper concludes that providing paternal care to fathers during miscarriage helps them deal with the loss and understand the process they are going through. Therefore, there is a need to develop a theory that provides the care process to fathers going through a miscarriage. Hence, the theory of paternal care during a miscarriage is proposed.
Abortion, Spontaneous ; Empathy ;

Virginia Henderson defined that the primary role of nurses for individuals, whether sick or well, is to assist them in regaining their health and promoting their independence in activities of daily living (Halloran, 2018). The gap that is noted in the definition of Henderson’s role of nurses is the lack of direction as to how will a nurse render care that is unique and satisfying to an individual, knowing that the demand of expectation rises. Thus, it motivated this paper to study the concept of the dynamic care nurse. This concept paper utilized Walker and Avant (2005) method of analysis. The attributes associated with the dynamic care nurse are (1) continuous learning; and (2) the utilization of best practices. The antecedents identified include (1) initiative, and (2) compassion (ICN, 2012, Hemberg et al., 2020, Kroning, et al., 2019). Dynamic care nurse exemplifies the attributes of continuous learning and the utilization of best practices. Nurses can bridge the gaps in the practice through these attributes and by possessing initiative and compassion, it is not by afar to achieve a better health care service and positive health outcomes.
Practice Guidelines as Topic ; Education, Continuing ; Nursing Care ; Empathy