Understanding empathy deficits and emotion dysregulation in psychopathy: The mediating role of alexithymia.

Psychopathy is a severe personality disorder marked by a wide range of emotional deficits, including a lack of empathy, emotion dysregulation, and alexithymia. Previous research has largely examined these emotional impairments in isolation, ignoring their influence on each other. Thus, we examined the concurrent interrelationship between emotional impairments in psychopathy, with a particular focus on the mediating role of alexithymia. Using path analyses with cross-sectional data from a community sample (N = 315) and a forensic sample (N = 50), our results yielded a statistically significant mediating effect of alexithymia on the relationship between psychopathy and empathy (community and forensic) and between psychopathy and emotion dysregulation (community). Moreover, replacing psychopathy with its three dimensions (i.e., meanness, disinhibition, and boldness) in the community sample revealed that boldness may function as an adaptive trait, with lower levels of alexithymia counteracting deficits in empathy and emotion dysregulation. Overall, our findings indicate that psychopathic individuals' limited understanding of their own emotions contributes to their lack of empathy and emotion dysregulation. This underscores the potential benefits of improving emotional awareness in the treatment of individuals with psychopathy.

Putting the Vicious Cycle to the Test: Evidence for the Cognitive Behavioral Model of Persistent Somatic Symptoms From an Online Study.

OBJECTIVE: In clinical practice, persistent somatic symptoms are regularly explained using a cognitive-behavioral model (CBM). In the CBM, predisposing, perpetuating, and precipitating factors are assumed to interact and to cause the onset and endurance of somatic symptoms. However, these models are rarely investigated in their entirety. METHODS: We conducted an online survey during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 2114 participants from the general German population completed questionnaires that measured different factors of the CBM. We used state negative affectivity and neuroticism as predisposing factors, fear of a COVID-19 infection as the precipitating factor, and somatic symptoms, misinterpretation of bodily symptoms, attention allocation to bodily symptoms, and health anxiety as perpetuating factors. Moreover, we added safety and avoidance behavior as end points to the model. We conducted a psychological network analysis to exploratively study the relationships between the model's different factors and tested the assumptions of the CBM by evaluating a structural equation model (SEM) that incorporated all factors of the model. RESULTS: Network analyses revealed clustering in our data: Health anxiety and different cognitive factors are closely related, whereas somatic symptoms and state negative affectivity are strongly associated. Our SEM showed adequate fit. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings from an exploratory and a confirmatory approach give empirical support for the CBM, suggesting it as a suitable model to explain bodily symptoms in the general population and to possibly guide clinical practice. The network model additionally indicates the necessity to apply an individualized CBM for patients, depending on a preponderance of either persistent somatic symptoms or health concerns.

Miniaturizing a coherent beam combining system into a compact laser diode module.

We present a laser module with dimensions of 76×43×15m m 3 that for the first time to our knowledge realizes a coherent beam combination in such a compact device, using two tapered amplifiers seeded by a distributed Bragg reflector ridge waveguide laser diode operating at 761 nm in a single longitudinal mode. The generated combined optical power is up to 5 W continuous wave with a combing efficiency of 85%. The phase of the system is controlled by the current in the ridge waveguide section of one of the tapered amplifiers. The phase-stabilization process is automated using a reverse hill-climbing algorithm and an ATmega328P microcontroller.

Investigating measurement invariance of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire-8 (ERQ-8) across 29 countries.

The widely used Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) measures the habitual use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Recently, a more economical 8-item version of the ERQ was proposed that showed good model fit. We assessed whether the latent constructs of the ERQ-8 are generalizable across different countries and cultures. To this end, we used data from the COVIDiSTRESS survey and investigated measurement invariance of the ERQ-8 in a large sample that included 11,288 individuals from 29 countries with diverse cultural backgrounds. Our analyses revealed configural and metric invariance of the ERQ-8 in 14 countries. The results suggest that emotion regulation strategies may not readily converge across all cultures. This underscores the importance of testing measurement invariance before interpreting observed differences and similarities between countries. Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-04220-6.

High-power, micro-integrated diode laser modules at 767 and 780 nm for portable quantum gas experiments.

We present micro-integrated diode laser modules operating at wavelengths of 767 and 780 nm for cold quantum gas experiments on potassium and rubidium. The master-oscillator-power-amplifier concept provides both narrow linewidth emission and high optical output power. With a linewidth (10 µs) below 1 MHz and an output power of up to 3 W, these modules are specifically suited for quantum optics experiments and feature the robustness required for operation at a drop tower or on-board a sounding rocket. This technology development hence paves the way toward precision quantum optics experiments in space.

Micro-integrated extended cavity diode lasers for precision potassium spectroscopy in space.

We present a micro-integrated, extended cavity diode laser module for space-based experiments on potassium Bose-Einstein condensates and atom interferometry. The module emits at the wavelength of the potassium D2-line at 766.7 nm and provides 27.5 GHz of continuous tunability. It features sub-100 kHz short term (100 µs) emission linewidth. To qualify the extended cavity diode laser module for quantum optics experiments in space, vibration tests (8.1 g(RMS) and 21.4 g(RMS)) and mechanical shock tests (1500 g) were carried out. No degradation of the electro-optical performance was observed.

Thermal optimization of second harmonic generation at high pump powers.

We measure the temperature distribution of a 3 cm long periodically poled LiNbO3 crystal in a single-pass second harmonic generation (SHG) setup at 488 nm. By means of three resistance heaters and directly mounted Pt100 sensors the crystal is subdivided in three sections. 9.4 W infrared pump light and 1.3 W of SHG light cause a de-homogenized temperature distribution of 0.2 K between the middle and back section. A sectional offset heating is used to homogenize the temperature in those two sections and thus increasing the conversion efficiency. A 15% higher SHG output power matching the prediction of our theoretical model is achieved.

Micro-integrated 1 Watt semiconductor laser system with a linewidth of 3.6 kHz.

We demonstrate a compact, narrow-linewidth, high-power, micro-integrated semiconductor-based master oscillator power amplifier laser module which is implemented on a footprint of 50 x 10 mm(2). A micro-isolator between the oscillator and the amplifier suppresses optical feedback. The oscillator is a distributed Bragg reflector laser optimized for narrow-linewidth operation and the amplifier consists of a ridge waveguide entry and a tapered amplifier section. The module features stable single-mode operation with a FWHM linewidth of only 100 kHz and an intrinsic linewidth as small as 3.6 kHz for an output power beyond 1 W.

Second-harmonic-generation microsystem light source at 488 nm for Raman spectroscopy.

A microsystem excitation light source emitting at 488 nm is presented. A direct single-pass nonlinear frequency conversion using a diode laser emission at 976 nm and a periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide crystal for efficient second-harmonic generation is demonstrated. This was realized on a micro-optical bench with a combined thermal management and a footprint of (25 mm x 5 mm). At 217 mW fundamental power a generated power of 56 mW at 488 nm with a conversion efficiency of 26% was achieved. With a power stability below 1%, this wavelength stabilized compact device is well suited for Raman spectroscopy.

Compact second-harmonic generation laser module with 1 W optical output power at 490 nm.

We demonstrate continues-wave 1 W at 490 nm on a 2.5 cm(3) micro-optical bench using single-path second-harmonic generation with a periodically poled MgO:LiNbO(3) bulk crystal. The pump laser is a distributed Bragg reflector tapered diode laser having a single-frequency spectrum and a pump power of 9.5 W. Based on that 1 W blue light could be achieved resulting in an optical conversion efficiency of 11%. Furthermore, the module has an output power stability of better than 2% and the blue laser beam shows an nearly diffraction limited beam quality of M(2)(sigma) = 1.2 in vertical and M(2)(sigma) = 2 in lateral direction.