A multidimensional examination of affective and cognitive empathy in anorexia nervosa.

Socio-emotional features are crucial in the development and maintenance of anorexia nervosa (AN). The present study investigates the patterns of altered and preserved empathic abilities in AN. Empathy is an umbrella term that comprises the ability to recognise another's emotional state, take another's perspective, and fantasise (cognitive empathy), as well as the ability to experience vicarious emotions and signal them (affective empathy). These empathic abilities were measured in 43 AN patients and 33 healthy women through a multi-method approach comprising self-report measures, behavioural tasks and bodily correlates. Further, we assessed self-reported approach-avoidance attitudes towards suffering others. Results showed that, within the domain of cognitive empathy, AN patients reported impairment in recognising emotional expressions of anger and fantasising. Concerning affective empathy, they manifested lower sharing of others' positive emotions, higher self-reported distress, and higher facial expressiveness during a video depicting a suffering person. Finally, AN patients reported lower motivation to approach suffering others. Our results draw a complex picture of preserved and altered empathic abilities in AN and capture which are the deficits mediated by the higher levels of anxiety and depression reported by the AN population and those that seem to persist independently from these co-morbid conditions.

How Can Intranasal Oxytocin Research Be Trusted? A Systematic Review of the Interactive Effects of Intranasal Oxytocin on Psychosocial Outcomes.

Over the past two decades, research about the role of oxytocin (OT) in human behavior has grown exponentially. However, a unified theory of OT effects has yet to be developed. Relatedly, growing concerns about the robustness of conclusions drawn in the field have been raised. The current article contributes to this debate by reporting on and discussing key conclusions from a systematic review of published studies addressing the interactive effects of intranasal OT (IN-OT) administration on psychosocial outcomes in a healthy population. The review indicates that (a) tested interactive IN-OT effects were highly heterogeneous; (b) for most published interactions, no replication was attempted; (c) when attempted, replications were largely unsuccessful; (d) significance was unrelated to sample size; (e) statistical power was critically low and unrelated to the rate of significant results; and (f) research practices were characteristic of an exploratory approach. This concerning state of affairs makes it virtually impossible to tease apart true from false interactive IN-OT effects. We provide constructive directions on the basis of this observation and positive predictive value simulations for future research that should help extract true effects from noise and move the IN-OT field forward.

Determinants of prebiotic vegetable consumption: the extended theory of planned behaviour.

BACKGROUND: Prebiotic vegetables such as leek and salsify may contribute to preventing obesity by changing the composition of the gut microbiota. To increase consumption of prebiotic vegetables, the aim of the study was to document the prevalence and determinants of (prebiotic) vegetable consumption. METHODS: An online, correlational questionnaire was administered to participants using a mixed approach (1078 online, 200 face-to-face). Participants were a representative sample (gender, age, level of education, province, population density and (un)employment) of 1278 adults of the Walloon region in Belgium. The frequency and determinants of prebiotic vegetable consumption were measured using an extension of the Theory of Planned Behaviour including habits, actual control and compensatory health beliefs. Descriptive analyses were performed followed by hierarchic multiple regression analyses. RESULTS: The descriptive results showed that for all categories (leek, salsify, vegetables in general) an improvement in both intentions and prevalence of the actual behaviour is necessary to experience the health benefits of (prebiotic) vegetables. Intentions and habits were important predictors of consumption for all types of vegetables, and hedonic attitudes and subjective norms were important predictors of intention. Perceived control and rational attitudes were predictors of intention to consume only for vegetables in general. Finally, environmental factors such as price, availability and actual control predict consumption but their influence differs depending on the vegetable. CONCLUSIONS: The findings can be used to inform interventions that aim to increase (prebiotic) vegetable consumption. Umbrella terms such as 'healthy food' or 'vegetables' do not capture the differences between the specific foods regarding the demographic and socio-psychological determinants of their consumption. This is the first research to investigate the determinants of prebiotic vegetable consumption.

Link Between Anhedonia and Depression During Early Alcohol Abstinence: Gender Matters.

AIMS: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the relation between anhedonia and depression in alcohol use disorders (AUD) during detoxification: Is trait anhedonia measured at the beginning of detoxification predictive of depressive symptoms observed at the end? Does state anhedonia recover during detoxification as depression does? Gender differences that have been previously observed for depression in AUD were also explored. METHODS: 81 AUD inpatients were tested at T1 (day 1) and T2 (day 14-18) of withdrawal with the trait Physical Anhedonia Scale, the state anhedonia Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale, the Beck depression inventory and the Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory and compared to 34 control participants, matched for age and gender. RESULTS: AUD patients scored significantly higher than controls on depression, anxiety and state and trait anhedonia when they just entered the detoxification unit. Depression, anxiety and state anhedonia decreased between T1 and T2 in AUD patients. In women, state anhedonia at T1 was predictive of depressive symptoms at T2 over and above anxiety and depression at T1. CONCLUSION: In AUD, state anhedonia recovers during detoxification, concurrently to other affective-related symptoms. However, in women, trait anhedonia predicts the level of depression at the end of detoxification, above and beyond anxiety. This finding stresses the importance of addressing anhedonia in the treatment of AUD and emphasizes the need for targeted interventions within clinical settings in this gender. Clinical consequences are discussed.

Default-name and tasting nudges increase salsify soup choice without increasing overall soup choice.

Nudging is a popular behavior change technique but the conditions for its effectiveness have not been researched extensively. The current study aimed to test whether the effectiveness of nudging is limited to certain characteristics of the nudged product by focusing on a specific product (salsify soup) within a broader category (soups). Two parallel studies were conducted in two sandwich restaurants in a university setting at which a default-name nudge ("suggestion of the chef") and a tasting nudge were implemented aimed at increasing the choice for salsify soup using a non-randomized study design during 10 and 12 measurement days. The beta-regression model showed that the default-name nudge increased the proportion of customers that choose the salsify soup during intervention days compared to non-intervention days, p < .001, OR: 1.70. The tasting nudge also increased the proportion of customers that choose the salsify soup from baseline to intervention, p < .001, OR: 6.17 and from baseline to post-intervention, p < .01, OR: 1.87, and decreased from intervention to post-intervention, p < .001, OR: 0.30. Both nudges did not increase the choice for the overall category of soups. The results show that certain types of nudges are able to increase specific products of a category without increasing overall choice of a category in contrast to previous findings.

Effects of short and prolonged transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation on heart rate variability in healthy subjects.

The vagus nerve is strategically located in the body, and has multiple homeostatic and health-promoting effects. Low vagal activity predicts onset and progression of diseases. These are the reasons to activate this nerve. This study examined the effects of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (t-VNS) on a main index of vagal activity, namely heart rate variability (HRV). In Study 1, we compared short (10min) left versus right ear t-VNS versus sham (no stimulation) in a within-subjects experimental design. Results revealed significant increases in only one HRV parameter (standard deviation of the RR intervals (SDNN)) following right-ear t-VNS. Study 2 examined the prolonged effects of t-VNS (1h) in the right ear. Compared to baseline, right-t-VNS significantly increased the LF and LF/HF components of HRV, and SDNN in women, but not in men. These results show limited effects of t-VNS on HRV, and are discussed in light of neuroanatomical and statistical considerations and future directions are proposed.

Is there a Publication Bias in Behavioural Intranasal Oxytocin Research on Humans? Opening the File Drawer of One Laboratory.

The neurohormone oxytocin (OT) has been one the most studied peptides in behavioural sciences over the past two decades. Primarily known for its crucial role in labour and lactation, a rapidly growing literature suggests that intranasal OT (IN-OT) may also play a role in the emotional and social lives of humans. However, the lack of a convincing theoretical framework explaining the effects of IN-OT that would also allow the prediction of which moderators exert their effects and when has raised healthy skepticism regarding the robustness of human behavioural IN-OT research. Poor knowledge of the exact pharmacokinetic properties of OT, as well as crucial statistical and methodological issues and the absence of direct replication efforts, may have lead to a publication bias in the IN-OT literature, with many unpublished studies with null results remaining buried in laboratory drawers. Is there a file drawer problem in IN-OT research? If this is the case, it may also be true in our own laboratory. The present study aims to answer this question, document the extent of the problem and discuss its implications for OT research. For eight studies (including 13 dependent variables overall, as assessed through 25 different paradigms) performed in our laboratory between 2009 and 2014 on 453 subjects, the results obtained were too often not those that were expected. Only five publications emerged from our studies and only one of these reported a null finding. After realising that our publication portfolio has become less and less representative of our actual findings and because the nonpublication of our data might contribute to generating a publication bias in IN-OT research, we decided to retrieve these studies from our drawer and encourage other laboratories to do the same.

Psychological, social and school implications of asthma: a comparison of Belgian French-speaking children having asthma with healthy children.

The present study aimed to explore the psychosocial implications of asthma among Belgian French-speaking children. Ninety-nine parents of children having asthma (Mage=11.40, SD=2.35) and 102 parents of children without asthma (Mage=11.25, SD=.81) participated in the study. Parents filled in the Child Behaviour Checklist and a demographic questionnaire. Results showed that children having asthma were assessed by their parents as having more internalizing, social and attention problems and as having less competence in doing activities (e.g., sports, hobbies, jobs) than their healthy peers. Significant differences also appeared between genders for attention problems, anxiety/depression, activities, social and school competences, indicating that boys were more vulnerable to psychological and social difficulties than girls but they had better school competences than girls. Finally, results showed no difference for psychological, social, and school adjustment between children who controlled and partly controlled their asthma. These findings emphasize the importance of screening children who would be at risk for having psychosocial problems and developing multidisciplinary interventions for children with asthma and for their families.

[What's about overactive lifestyle in fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome]. / Place du style de vie "hyperactif" dans les syndromes de fibromyalgie et de fatigue chronique.

Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome are clinical conditions different but they share common components, particularly multifactorial aetiology. High level of action proneness and "overactive" lifestyle can be considered as predisposing risk factors and perpetuating factors for these somatic functional syndromes. For the clinicians managing complex situations, only a holistic, circular and biopsychosocial approach could restore a new equilibrium (allostasis) with strategies of coping with chronic pain and planification of activities.

Alexithymia is associated with glycaemic control of children with type 1 diabetes.

AIM: This study examined the respective contributions of the demographics, medical variables and alexithymia characteristics of young diabetics to their glycaemic control. The goal was to replicate the role of the 'difficulty describing feelings' factor of alexithymia in the prediction of poor glycaemic control as has been found in adult diabetic populations. METHOD: The study included 45 type 1 diabetic children, aged 8-12 years (24 girls and 21 boys). Participants completed a sociodemographic questionnaire and provided medical information on their diabetes. HbA(1c) values (glycated haemoglobin), and the number of severe hypoglycaemic episodes and hospitalizations for hyperglycaemia, were collected for the previous 12 months (3 months for severe hypoglycaemias). Alexithymia characteristics were measured by means of the Alexithymia Questionnaire for children. RESULTS: Hierarchical regression analyses confirmed that both demographic (marital status and parental education; P<0.05) and medical (duration of diabetes and daily self-monitoring of blood glucose frequency; P<0.01) variables are associated with HbA(1c) levels. More important, one alexithymia factor (difficulty describing feelings) was found to be an additional predictor over and above the other variables (P<0.01), explaining an additional 12% of the total variance in HbA(1c) levels. CONCLUSION: Confirming results already observed in diabetic adults, the present findings show, for the first time, that children who have difficulties in expressing their feelings to others are more at risk of poor glycaemic control. In future, it will be useful to identify the diabetic young people who have such difficulties and to consider interventions designed specifically for them.

Does family cohesiveness and parental alexithymia predict glycaemic control in children and adolescents with diabetes?

AIM: Several studies indicate that family functioning and parental expressiveness can influence children's glycaemic control. However, previous studies have had contradictory findings. Furthermore, no previous work has simultaneously explored the mother's and father's perception of family cohesiveness together with maternal and paternal alexithymia in relation to a child's diabetic control. In this study, we examined whether the parental perception of family cohesion and the parents' degree of alexithymia could predict their child's or adolescent's glycaemic control (severe hypoglycaemia, hospitalizations for hyperglycaemia and HbA(1c)) after adjusting for demographic variables. METHODS: The study included 45 Belgian families with at least one type 1 diabetic child aged six to 18 years (25 girls and 20 boys). Parents completed demographic questionnaires about themselves and their children. Information on type 1 diabetes in their child and the family-medical history were also collected. The number of severe-hypoglycaemic events and hospitalizations for hyperglycaemia were documented for the last 12 months, as were HbA(1c) levels over the last 16 months. Finally, family cohesiveness (FACES-III) and parental alexithymia (TAS-20) were assessed. RESULTS: Hierarchical regression analyses showed that the perception of family cohesion by mothers (P<0.05) was a predictor of the number of severe hypoglycaemic events in the last 12 months. Parents' demographic variables (marital and professional status, P<0.001) and maternal alexithymia (P<0.05) were found to be predictors of the number of hospitalizations for hyperglycaemia in the last 12 months. As for HbA(1c), only two parental demographic variables were significant predictors (marital and professional status, P<0.01 and P<0.05, respectively). CONCLUSION: The maternal perception of family cohesiveness and maternal alexithymia predict on glycaemic control in children and adolescents with diabetes.

[Confirmatory factor analysis of the French version of the emotional intelligence inventory]. / Analyse confirmatoire de la version française de l'inventaire d'intelligence émotionnelle.

BACKGROUND: In the context of the increasing interest in the study and assessment of emotional abilities in psychology, we translated into French and evaluated the construct validity of the emotional intelligence inventory (EII) designed in English [Psychol Rep; 88 (2001):353-64]. This self-rating scale is modelled along the theoretical constructs of the Mayer, Caruso and Salovey's model [Intelligence; 27 (1999):267-98]; it comprises 41 items tapping the four following factors: (1) empathy; (2) utilization of feelings, (3) handling relationships and; (4) self-control. METHODS: One thousand three hundred and thirty-five students (42.7% men) with a mean age of 19.6 years and affiliated to several school and faculties participated to this Belgian interuniversity study. They were administered the French version of the EII, as well as a series of related questionnaires. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were applied to these data and various fit indices examined in order to assess the factorial adjustment to the data of the four-factor a priori structure. RESULTS: CFA did not support the original 41-item four-factor structure for the scale in French, but a good statistical fit to the data could be obtained with the reduction of the scale to 20 items. The content of the resulting item set, keeping Tapia's four factors, encourages a revision of the domain covered by the subscales. CONCLUSION: Further efforts should be directed at assessing the content validity of the proposed revised scale as a reliable tool in measuring emotional intelligence by self-report.

The role of alexithymia factors in glucose control of persons with type 1 diabetes: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVE: To clarify the respective contribution of demographic characteristics, health conditions and three psychological variables (depression, anxiety, alexithymia) for glycaemic control measured by glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty-four persons diagnosed with type 1 diabetes completed psychological measures and demographic information at admission (T1) to the hospital and in a follow-up (+8 weeks) (T2). Additional information about their health conditions was also considered. RESULTS: At T1, the alexithymia factor "difficulties describing feelings" (DDF) predicted HbA1c over and above the predictive power of demographic information, health conditions, anxiety, and depression. Additionally, higher decrease in HbA1c from T1 to T2 was predicted by higher scores on the alexithymia factor DDF at admission over and above the other predictors. CONCLUSION: DDF is an important predictor of glucose control. Scoring higher on this factor is related to poorer glycaemic control at admission. Additionally, people with higher scores on this factor seem to benefit highly from the treatment administered at the hospital.

An evaluation of the absolute and relative stability of alexithymia in patients with major depression.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies demonstrating an association between alexithymia and depression have led to the proposal that alexithymia may be a state-dependent phenomenon rather than a stable and enduring personality trait. Several longitudinal studies have provided support for a trait view of alexithymia, but most of these studies evaluated absolute stability only (i.e., the extent to which alexithymia scores change over time) and did not examine the relative stability of alexithymia (i.e., the extent to which relative differences among individuals remain the same over time) in the context of changes in illness symptomatology. The present study evaluated both absolute stability and relative stability of alexithymia in depressed patients who experienced a marked reduction in the severity of depressive symptoms. METHODS: Forty-six psychiatric outpatients with major depression were assessed for alexithymia and depression with the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression at the start of treatment (baseline) and after 14 weeks of treatment (follow-up) with antidepressant medication. Paired t tests and correlational analyses were performed to evaluate absolute stability and relative stability in alexithymia. Hierarchical regression analyses were then used to assess the degree to which the relative stability in alexithymia scores was related to the severity of depressive symptoms, and the degree to which changes in alexithymia scores could be attributed to changes in depression scores. RESULTS: Alexithymia scores changed significantly from baseline to follow-up, indicating a general lack of absolute stability. There was, however, strong evidence of relative stability, as alexithymia scores at baseline correlated significantly with alexithymia scores at follow-up and were also a significant predictor of follow-up alexithymia scores, after partialling the effects of depression severity. CONCLUSIONS: Although alexithymia scores may change in the presence of large changes in the severity of depressive symptoms, the finding of relative stability of alexithymia supports the view that this construct is a stable personality trait rather a state-dependent phenomenon.

Flashbulb memories in social groups: a comparative test-retest study of the memory of French President Mitterrand's death in a French and a Belgian group.

Flashbulb memories are vivid and long-lasting memories for the reception context of an important public event (Brown & Kulik, 1977). They are assumed to be triggered by emotional factors (i.e., intensity of emotional feeling, appraisal of the original event) and by social factors (i.e., social sharing of the news, following media debate about the event). The present study investigated the memory for the death of the former President of France F. Mitterrand in two social groups, i.e., French and Belgian people. This study tests whether the flashbulb memory attributes, the memory for the original event, and the impact of the emotional and social determinants of flashbulb memory differed across groups. The results indicated that the flashbulb memory for Mitterrand's death is affected by group provenance, as French people showed higher levels of recall for the flashbulb memory attributes and their determinants than Belgian people. Time impaired recollections in both groups, so that flashbulb memories appear prone to decay and share the same destiny as ordinary memories. The theoretical construct of concern--as the most basic antecedent of emotional experiences and its related appraisal (Frijda, 1994)--is discussed in order to explain the differences in memory of the two social groups.

Relation between alexithymia and the five-factor model of personality: a facet-level analysis.

The relation between alexithymia and both the domain and the facet level of the five-factor model (FFM) of personality was examined in a sample of 101 university students by using the Twenty-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20; Bagby, Taylor, & Parker, 1994) and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992c). Consistent with the alexithymia construct, the TAS-20 was positively correlated with Neuroticism (N) and negatively correlated with Extraversion (E) and Openness (O), whereas no significant relations were found with Agreeableness (A) and Conscientiousness (C). Analysis of the lower order traits (i.e., facets) of the FFM revealed that depression for N; positive emotions and assertiveness for E; feelings and actions for O; altruism, tender-mindedness, and modesty for A; and competence for C predicted alexithymia. These results support the uniqueness of the alexithymia construct, which is represented by a cluster of traits across the dimensions and facets of the FFM.

Flashbulb memories and the underlying mechanisms of their formation: toward an emotional-integrative model.

Flashbulb memories (FBMs) are detailed recollections of the context in which people first heard about important events. The present study investigates three models of the formation and maintenance of FBM. Two models have previously been proposed in the literature (Brown & Kulik, 1977; Conway et al., 1994). A third model of FBM that integrates theories of FBM and recent developments in the field of emotions is proposed. The present study compares these three competing models by investigating the FBMs that Belgian citizens developed upon learning of the unexpected death of their king Baudouin. Structural equation modeling revealed that, as compared to the two previously proposed models, the third model, which takes into account emotional processes, better explains FBM.