Social Exclusion Down-Regulates Pain Empathy at the Late Stage of Empathic Responses: Electrophysiological Evidence.

Social exclusion has a significant impact on cognition, emotion, and behavior. Some behavioral studies investigated how social exclusion affects pain empathy. Conclusions were inconsistent, and there is a lack of clarity in identifying which component of pain empathy is more likely to be affected. To investigate these issues, we used a Cyberball task to manipulate feelings of social exclusion. Two groups (social exclusion and social inclusion) participated in the same pain empathy task while we recorded event-related potentials (ERP) when participants viewed static images of body parts in painful and neutral situations. The results showed early N2 differentiation between painful and neutral pictures in the central regions in both groups. The pattern at the late controlled processing stage was different. Parietal P3 amplitudes for painful pictures were significantly smaller than those for neutral pictures in the social exclusion group; they did not differ in the social inclusion group. We observed a parietal late positive potential (LPP) differentiation between painful and neutral pictures in both groups. LPP amplitudes were significantly smaller in the social exclusion group than those in the social inclusion group for painful stimuli. Our results indicate that social exclusion does not affect empathic responses during the early emotional sharing stage. However, it down-regulates empathic responses at the late cognitive controlled stage, and this modulation is attenuated gradually. The current study provides neuroscientific evidence of how social exclusion dynamically influences pain empathy.

Infantile synchronous primary bilateral testicular germ cell tumor: a case report and review of the literature.

Testicular tumors are uncommon in adults, accounting for <1% of all cancers, with testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) representing the majority (>95%) of reported cases. Adult and prepubertal TGCTs are fundamentally distinct and the latter is extremely rare, representing 1% of all pediatric solid tumors and having an annual incidence rate of 0.5-2/100,000 boys. Bilateral TGCTs (BTGCTs) account for 0.5-5% of all testicular tumors; the majority are metachronous, while the synchronous account for approximately 0.5-1%. A 16-month-old boy was admitted to our Urology Department with a 2-week history of a painless scrotal mass. Ultrasonography revealed a homogeneous hyperechoic solid mass with rich blood supply in the right testis, and no discernable testicular tissue. A well-delineated heterogeneous echo mass was found within the left testis. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) scan showed a significantly enhanced mass in the right testis and a mildly enhanced mass in the left testis. Serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) was 12,567 ng/mL, while ß-human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) and total testosterone levels were normal. Accordingly, bilateral testicular tumors were the primary consideration. The patient underwent right radical inguinal orchiectomy with high ligation of the spermatic cord and left testicle-sparing surgery. Final pathology confirmed a pure yolk sac tumor (YST) from the right testis and a cystic mature teratoma from the left. The follow-up ultrasonography showed no recurrence, with serum AFP returned to normal by postoperative day 44. Synchronous primary BTGCT with teratoma and YST respectively can occur coincidently and successfully treated by testicle-sparing surgery.

Emotion intensity modulates perspective taking in men and women: an event-related potential study.

When empathizing with another individual, one can imagine the individual's emotional states and how he or she perceives a situation. However, it is not known to what extent imagining the other differs from imagining oneself under different emotional intensity situations in both sexes. The present study investigated the regulatory effect of emotional intensity on perspective taking in men and women by event-related potentials. The participants were shown pictures of individuals in highly negative (HN), moderately negative, and neutral situations, and instructed to imagine the degree of pain perceived from either a self-perspective or an other-perspective. The results showed that there was no N2 differentiation between the self-perspective and other-perspective under all conditions. Nor was there late positive potential differentiation under moderately negative and neutral conditions in either sex. In contrast, late positive potential induced by HN pictures under the self-perspective was significantly larger than that under the other-perspective only in women. These results suggested that women tended to overestimate the pain of HN stimuli from a self-perspective than from an other-perspective.

[Studies on the decoction isometric from Zingiberaceae materials for medicine].

OBJECTIVE: To study the decoction isometric from Zingiberaceae materials for medicine. METHODS: We decocted the herb under the simulation decoction condition, contained the volatile oil which dissipated from the decoction and the concentration process, dried the broth, and computed the received rate. RESULTS: We Obtained the loss percentage of the volatile oil for various raw matrials for medicine in the decoction process, the amount of volatile oil which was contained in the physic liquor, and the decoction isometric dosage. CONCLUSION: It is suggested collecting the volatile oil while decocting the medicinal, and this study provids the basic data for the single herba granular formulation production and the marked level for the raw materials.