Clinical Accuracy, Relevance, Clarity, and Emotional Sensitivity of Large Language Models to Surgical Patient Questions: Cross-Sectional Study.

This cross-sectional study evaluates the clinical accuracy, relevance, clarity, and emotional sensitivity of responses to inquiries from patients undergoing surgery provided by large language models (LLMs), highlighting their potential as adjunct tools in patient communication and education. Our findings demonstrated high performance of LLMs across accuracy, relevance, clarity, and emotional sensitivity, with Anthropic's Claude 2 outperforming OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard, suggesting LLMs' potential to serve as complementary tools for enhanced information delivery and patient-surgeon interaction.

The Dog Soundscape: Recurrence, Emotional Impact, Acoustics, and Implications for Dog Observations and Dog-Human Interactions.

While numerous dog behavioral studies use environmental sounds, the dog soundscape remains undescribed. We proposed a list of 79 sounds classified into six categories: Dog, Dog accessories, Human, city and vehicles, Garden, countryside and weather, and Household. In a survey, 620 dog owners scored the frequency of their dog's exposure to, and thus, the recurrence of, each of the 79 sounds, from never to daily. The survey results also extended to about 25 sounds the number of acknowledged sounds that are likely to elicit stress or fear, that is, negative emotional sensitivity, in dogs. Sound recurrence and emotional sensitivity were not correlated, showing no beneficial effect of frequent exposure to, and no deleterious effect of scarcity of, sound events. We suggest that for the sake of dog welfare, researchers, veterinarians, trainers, and owners may limit dogs' exposure to the sensitive sounds identified in the study during their dog observations and dog-human interactions. A corpus of 84 sounds was collected. The sounds were spectrally analyzed by determining their F0 and 10 dB bandwidth parameters. At the lowest sound frequencies, where canine hearing is poorest, negative emotional sensitivity was generally low. At the middle and high sound center frequencies/F0s, sensitivity greatly varied from lowest to highest, which is incompatible with both the general assumption and dog auditory detection thresholds. How emotional sensitivity relates to F0 (pitch) and hearing sensitivity remains undetermined. Finally, we suggest that future behavioral audiometric studies of dogs may maximize the spectral spread of each sound while minimizing the spectral overlap between sounds so as to reduce both the testing duration and the risk of inadvertently targeting or, conversely, missing frequency-dependent hearing impairments.

The Emotionally Sensitive Child-Adverse Parenting Experiences-Allostatic (Over)Load (ESCAPE-AL) Model for the Development of Secondary Psychopathic Traits.

Understanding and treatment of antisocial behavior have improved through efforts to subtype individuals based on similar risk factors and outcomes. In particular, the presence of psychopathic traits is associated with distinct etiological factors and antisocial behavior that begins early in life, is aggressive, persistent, and less likely to normalize with traditional treatments, relative to individuals low on psychopathy or its childhood precursor, callous-unemotional (CU) traits. However, important distinctions can be made within individuals with CU/psychopathic traits according to the presence of elevated anxiety symptoms and/or adverse childhood experiences, known as secondary psychopathy/CU traits. This paper provides a broad and brief overview of theory and empirical literature supporting the existence of secondary psychopathy/CU variants as a distinct subtype of childhood antisocial behavior. It outlines the Emotionally Sensitive Child-Adverse Parenting Experiences-Allostatic (Over)Load (ESCAPE-AL) model for the developmental psychopathology of secondary psychopathic/CU traits and discusses research and theory supporting this perspective. Future research directions for testing this conceptual model and its implications for assessing and treating high-risk individuals with secondary CU/psychopathic traits are discussed.

ERP evidence for emotional sensitivity in social anxiety.

BACKGROUND: Emotional sensitivity involves the ability to recognize and interpret facial expressions. This is very important for interpersonal communication. Previous studies found differences in emotional sensitivity between high social anxiety (HSA) individuals and low social anxiety (LSA) individuals. However, the underlying neural mechanisms are still unclear. The present study explored the effects of expression intensity and social anxiety on emotional sensitivity and their neural mechanisms. METHODS: The HSA group (n = 20) and the LSA group (n = 20) were asked to recognize anger expressions with different intensities in an emotion recognition task. The hit rate, reaction time, early time window (P1, N170), and late time window (LPP) were recorded. RESULTS: The results showed that individuals with HSA had a significantly higher hit rate and shorter reaction time than individuals with LSA (p < 0.01). Event-related potential (ERP) results showed that, compared to the LSA group, the HSA group exhibited significantly enhanced N170 and LPP amplitude (p < 0.01). However, the difference in P1 amplitude was not significant (p > 0.05). LIMITATIONS: The participants in this study were a subclinical social anxiety sample, and the effects of other mood disorders were not excluded, partially limiting the generalizability of the results. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that, compared to LSA individuals, HSA individuals are more sensitive to all presented faces. The ERP results indicated that HSA individuals' high sensitivity to threatening expressions is related to stronger structural encoding and fine processing.

Emotional sensitivity predicts internship performance of medical students enrolled under different admission screening protocols.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: People with heightened emotional sensitivity can perceive better how others feel. Students admitted to medical school by interviews for assessing pre-set personal qualities, such as emotional sensitivity, may be more likely to meet patients' satisfaction in the future. We tested whether a student enrolled by passing the interview would have more emotional sensitivity than those by taking an exam. We also investigated what impact the enrolment protocols might have on students' internship performance. METHODS: Participants were first- and second-year medical students and assigned into the interviewed group or examined group according to the entrance protocols. Two emotion-related tasks and one control task were adopted. Subsequently, the performance evaluation of clinical work from students' advisors about these two groups of participants were collected after they finished the internship training at the hospital. CONCLUSIONS: Students selected through the pre-programmed interview which is based on personal qualities showed greater emotional sensitivity than those selected by the exam. Those students with better emotional sensitivity also performed better when they were in the internship training. Emotional sensitivity is a valid index to predict students' future performance and could be used in the selection protocol for medical students.

Emotional Underarousal and Overarousal and Engagement in Relational Aggression: Interactions between Relational Victimization, Physiological Reactivity, and Emotional Sensitivity.

The present study examined if overarousal (i.e., dysregulation and high emotional sensitivity) and underarousal (i.e., fearlessness and emotional insensitivity) to peer stress, reflected in physiological reactivity and subjective emotional sensitivity, exacerbated risk for relational aggression in relationally victimized children. Participants were a community sample of 125 children (10-12 years, M = 11.34 years, SD = 0.89; 45% female). Teachers provided ratings of children's relational victimization and relational aggression. Children's physiological reactivity was assessed based on skin conductance level (SCL) reactivity and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) reactivity to a standardized peer rejection task. Children's subjective emotional sensitivity was assessed using self-reported ratings of distress to hypothetical relational provocation vignettes. Results indicated that relational victimization was significantly associated with relational aggression only for children with high SCL reactivity and high emotional sensitivity (i.e., physiological and subjective overarousal) and for children with low SCL reactivity and low emotional sensitivity (i.e., physiological and subjective underarousal); relational victimization did not predict relational aggression among children with high SCL reactivity but low emotional sensitivity or among children with low SCL reactivity but high emotional sensitivity. Relational victimization was also marginally more strongly associated with relational aggression for children displaying RSA augmentation. Results suggest emotional overarousal and underarousal may both serve as vulnerabilities for relational aggression among relationally victimized youth, and underscore the importance of including physiological and subjective indices of emotional reactivity in studies of aggression. Implications for theory and intervention are discussed.

An evaluation of the construct of emotional sensitivity from the perspective of emotionally sensitive people.

BACKGROUND: Emotional sensitivity is a construct found in major developmental models of borderline personality disorder. However, the construct remains nebulous. The patient perspective is crucially important in helping to define and conceptualize any psychological construct - especially one that plays such a large role in the developmental theories of a given disorder. The aim of the current study was to explore the meaning of emotional sensitivity from the perspective of those who identify as being emotionally sensitive. METHODS: Participants were from a community sample of adults (Mage = 32.05, range: 21-59) who responded to an advertisement for a study of emotional sensitivity. Participants completed surveys related to personality pathology and a semi-structured interview about emotional sensitivity. Emotional sensitivity interviews were independently coded by two research assistants trained in qualitative analyses for content and process. Coders were blind to the personality pathology status of participants. RESULTS: Regardless of level of personality pathology, qualitative results of the emotional sensitivity interview largely suggest that emotional sensitivity is a heightened emotional reactivity to stimuli, including the emotions of other individuals, or a tendency to have emotional reactions to even low impact stimuli. However, emotional sensitivity was regarded predominantly as a negative trait (i.e. burden) only by those who have high levels of borderline personality pathology. CONCLUSIONS: The implications of these results for the conceptualization and utility of emotional sensitivity in borderline personality disorder are discussed.

Cultural Aspects in Symptomatology, Assessment, and Treatment of Personality Disorders.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review discusses cultural trends, challenges, and approaches to assessment and treatment of personality traits and disorders. Specific focus include current developments in the Asian, Italian, Iranian, and Australian societies, as well as the process of acculturation, following moves between cultures with the impact on healthy and disordered personality function. RECENT FINDINGS: Each culture with its specific history, dimensions, values, and practices influences and gears the individual and family or group in unique ways that affect personality functioning. Similarly, each culture provides means of protection and assimilation as well as norms for acceptance and denunciations of specific behaviors and personality traits. The diagnosis of personality disorders and their treatment need to take into consideration the individual in the context of the culture and society in which they live. Core personality problems, especially emotion dysregulation and interpersonal functioning are specifically influenced by cultural norms and context.

The Increased Sex Differences in Susceptibility to Emotional Stimuli during Adolescence: An Event-Related Potential Study.

The present study investigated how pubertal development and sex interact to influence humans' emotion susceptibility during adolescence. Event-related potentials were recorded for highly emotional, mildly emotional and neutral stimuli in positive and negative blocks, when 73 adolescents (36 pre-/early pubertal students, 19 boys, 10-12 years old; 37 mid-/late pubertal students, 18 boys, 11-13 years old) performed an implicit emotion task. Behavioral analysis showed higher positive mood ratings for pre-/early compared to mid-/late pubertal subjects, irrespective of sex and block. ERP analysis demonstrated increasing Late Positive Potential (LPP) amplitudes from neutral, Mildly Positive (MP) to Highly Positive (HP) stimuli in pre-/early pubertal, but not in mid-/late pubertal adolescents. However, girls exhibited higher P3a amplitudes during mid-/late relative to pre-/early puberty for negative stimuli irrespective of intensity; while this puberty effect was absent in boys. In addition, girls compared to boys exhibited a more pronounced LPP enhancement effect for Highly Negative (HN) stimuli and a lower threshold of responding to negative stimuli in P3b amplitudes, regardless of puberty. These results suggest that, though there is a puberty-independent sensitivity to negative stimuli in girls relative to boys, puberty selectively intensifies girls' attention bias for negative stimuli and reduces experiential sensitivity to positive stimuli in both sexes. The implication of these results for the sex-related psychopathology during adolescence were discussed.

Emotional sensitivity, emotion regulation and impulsivity in borderline personality disorder: a critical review of fMRI studies.

Emotional sensitivity, emotion regulation and impulsivity are fundamental topics in research of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Studies using fMRI examining the neural correlates concerning these topics is growing and has just begun understanding the underlying neural correlates in BPD. However, there are strong similarities but also important differences in results of different studies. It is therefore important to know in more detail what these differences are and how we should interpret these. In present review a critical light is shed on the fMRI studies examining emotional sensitivity, emotion regulation and impulsivity in BPD patients. First an outline of the methodology and the results of the studies will be given. Thereafter important issues that remained unanswered and topics to improve future research are discussed. Future research should take into account the limited power of previous studies and focus more on BPD specificity with regard to time course responses, different regulation strategies, manipulation of self-regulation, medication use, a wider range of stimuli, gender effects and the inclusion of a clinical control group.

Yoga therapy for promoting emotional sensitivity in University students.

BACKGROUND: Students need emotional intelligence (EI) for their better academic excellence. There are three important psychological dimensions of EI: Emotional sensitivity (ES), emotional maturity (EM) and emotional competency (EC), which motivate students to recognize truthfully, interpret honestly and handle tactfully the dynamics of their behavioral pattern. OBJECTIVE: The study was designed to assess ES in the students undergoing yoga therapy program in the form of yoga instructor's course (YIC) module. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and eighty four YIC students with 25.77 ± 4.85 years of mean age participated in this study of 21 days duration (a single group pre-post design). The ES data was collected before (pre) and after (post) YIC module using Emotional Quotient test developed by Dr Dalip Singh and Dr N K Chadha. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Means, standard deviations, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and Wilcoxon signed rank test were used for analyzing the data with the help of SPSS 16. RESULTS: The data analysis showed 3.63% significant increase (P < 0.01) in ES. CONCLUSION: The present study suggests that YIC module can result in improvement of ES among university students, thus paving the way for their academic success. Additional well-designed studies are needed before a strong recommendation can be made.

Enhanced sensitivity and response bias for male anger in women with borderline personality disorder.

Interpersonal difficulties, which are characteristic of Borderline personality disorder (BPD), may be related to problems with social cognition. We explored facial emotion recognition in 44 women (15 with BPD, 15 healthy controls, and 14 with a history of childhood trauma but no BPD) examining the role of BPD and abuse history in the ability to detect fearful, angry and happy cues in emotional faces. In Task 1, participants viewed pictures of morphed faces containing different percentages of specific emotions and reported the emotion they saw. In Task 2, participants were asked to increase the intensity of a specific emotion on an initially neutral face until they could detect that emotion in the face. Across both tasks, BPD predicted the earlier detection of anger in male faces. BPD symptoms also predicted the misidentification of anger in male faces containing no anger cues. Although participants with BPD were slower to recognize happiness in male faces, their overall ability to recognize happiness was unimpaired. Abuse history did predict problems with happiness recognition. Finally, recognition of fear was unrelated to abuse history and BPD. Findings suggest that BPD is associated with a bias toward seeing anger in males and that this is independent of abuse history.

Different patterns of puberty effect in neural oscillation to negative stimuli: sex differences.

The present study investigated the impact of puberty on sex differences in neural sensitivity to negative stimuli. Event-related oscillation technique was used. Because girls are more vulnerable to affective disturbances than boys during adolescence, it was hypothesized that puberty exerts different influences on neural sensitivity to negative stimuli in boys and girls. EEGs were recorded for highly negative (HN), mildly negative (MN) and neutral pictures, when boys and girls distinct in pubertal status performed a non-emotional distracting task. No emotion effect and its interaction with sex and puberty were observed in response latencies. However, puberty influenced the gamma-band oscillation effect for negative stimuli differently for boys and girls: Pre-pubertal boys showed a significant emotion effect for HN stimuli, whose size was decreased in pubertal boys. By contrast, there was a significant emotion effect for HN stimuli in pubertal girls but not in pre-pubertal girls. On the other hand, the size of the emotion effect for HN stimuli was similar for pre-pubertal boys and girls; while this effect was significantly more pronounced in pubertal girls compared to pubertal boys. Additionally, the size of the emotion effect in gamma oscillations decreased as a function of pubertal development during both HN and MN stimulation in boys. For girls, the emotion effect in gamma oscillations increased with pubertal development during HN stimulation. Thus, puberty is associated with reduced neural sensitivity in boys but increased sensitivity in girls, in reaction to negative stimuli. The implications of these results for the psychopathology during adolescence were discussed.

Mediación moderada, sensibilidad emocional y atontamiento en el contexto del estrés / Moderated Mediation, Emotional Sensitivity and Coping in the Context of Stress / Mediação moderada, sensibilidade emocional e afrontamento no contexto do stress

El presente trabajo describe una propuesta teórica explicativa de la relación estrés-enfermedad, denominada modelo de mediación moderada, en el cual se establece la intervención de la sensibilidad emocional y el afrontamiento en tal relación; actuando la primera como variable moderadora y la segunda como variable mediadora del modelo. La propuesta pasa por una revisión exhaustiva de la literatura reportada en los últimos 15 años sobre el tema de las variables moderadoras y mediadoras en el contexto del estrés y la importancia de su diferenciación a la hora de integrarlas en los modelos explicativos. Para ello, se usaron las palabras clave "moderación, mediación y estrés" como criterios de búsqueda en las bases de datos bibliográficas. Asimismo, se ofrecen múltiples evidencias sobre la influencia de la sensibilidad emocional y el afrontamiento en la relación estrés-enfermedad en diferentes contextos y poblaciones. El modelo de mediación moderada se presenta como una propuesta teórica a ser validada empíricamente.

The present paper describes a theoretical proposal of the stress-illness relationship, called the moderated mediation model, in which the intervention of emotional sensitivity and coping in such relationships are established, with the former acting as moderating variable and the latteras mediating variable of the model. The proposal was subjected to an exhaustive review of literature over the last 15 years on the subject of moderating and mediating variables in the context of stress, and the relevance of their differentiation when integrated in explanatory models. Key words such as "moderation, mediation and stress" were used as search criteria in the bibliographical data bases. Likewise, considerable empirical evidence is offered regarding the influence of emotional sensitivity and coping in the stress-illness relationship in different contexts and populations. The moderated mediation model is being presented as a theoretical proposal to be empirically validated.

O presente trabalho descreve uma proposta teórica explicativa da relação stress- doença, denominada modelo de mediação moderada, no qual estabelece-se a intervenção da sensibilidade emocional e o afrontamento em tal relação, atuando a primeira como variável moderada e a segunda como variável mediadora do modelo. A proposta passa por uma revisão exaustiva da literatura reportada nos últimos 15 anos sobre o tema das variáveis moderadoras e mediadoras no contexto do stress e a importância de sua diferenciação à hora de ser integradas nos modelos explicativos. Para isto foram usadas as palavras chave "moderação, mediação e stress" como critérios de procura nas bases de dados bibliográficas. Assim mesmo, são oferecidas múltiplas evidencias sobre a influencia da sensibilidade emocional e o afrontamento na relação stress- doença em diferentes contextos e populações. O modelo de mediação moderada apresenta-se como uma proposta teórica para ser avaliada empiricamente.

Estrés laboral, afrontamiento, sensibilidad emocional y síntomas físicos y psicológicos en médicos venezolanos / Work stress, coping, emotional sensitivity, physical and phychological symtoms in Venezuelan physicians

La presente investigación tuvo como objetivo predecir los síntomas físicos y psicológicos percibidos de médicos venezolanos en función de su estrés laboral, estilos de afrontamiento, sensibilidad emocional y características demográficas. La muestra estuvo conformada por 130 médicos que trabajan en unidades críticas de hospitales públicos de Caracas (Venezuela), a quienes se evaluaron los factores psicosociales indicados para determinar el patrón de relación de los mismos y su capacidad de predecir el estatus de los síntomas físicos y psicológicos autoreportados por los galenos. Los resultados de las regresiones múltiples indicaron que el uso del afrontamiento emocional y el ser residente incrementan los niveles de síntomas físicos; adicionalmente, los síntomas psicológicos fueron predichos por el uso del afrontamiento emocional, la condición de ser médico residente, mujer y el poco uso del desapego emocional. Por su parte, la característica de personalidad de mayor presencia en los médicos es la sensibilidad interpersonal positiva, involucrando la expresión y manifestación de sentimientos positivos. Finalmente, el modelo de estrés laboral de Karasek y Theorell permitió la clasificación de los profesionales de la medicina venezolanos en el cuadrante de aprendizaje activo.

This research aimed at predicting the perceived health of Venezuelan physicians based on their work stress, coping styles, emotional sensitivity and sociodemographic characteristics. Sample was 130 physicians working in critical units of public hospitals in Caracas, Venezuela, who were evaluated on the mentioned psychosocial factors in order to determine their interrelationship and their ability to predict the health status of the physicians. Results from multiple regressions analyses suggested that physical symtoms are predicted for using emotional coping and being resident. Also, using emotional coping, but low emotional detachment, being medical resident and woman, predicted increased psychological symptoms. On the other side, the positive interpersonal sensitivity was the most consistent personality characteristic of the physicians, involving the expression of positive affects. Finally, the Karasek and Theorell´s model of work stress allowed classifying the Venezuelan physicians on the active learning block.