Linguistic Empathy: Behavioral measures, neurophysiological correlates, and correlation with Psychological Empathy.

Relations among behavioral, psychological, and electrophysiological correlates of Linguistic Empathy were examined in two experiments using lateralized stimuli. Linguistic Empathy is defined as a linguistic manifestation of the point of view the speaker assumes toward the content of the utterance, and of the speaker's attitude toward/identification with the referents therein. Linguistic choices made by the speaker among multiple logically and referentially synonymous lexical and grammatical options reveal the speaker's perspectives. In experiment 1, acceptability ratings were measured for Context-Target sentence pairs that did or did not violate two Empathy Hierarchies (Person Empathy Hierarchy and Topic Empathy Hierarchy); the Empathy Quotient (EQ) test of Psychological Empathy was also administered. Ratings were lower for sentence pairs that violated both hierarchies than for those violating neither and were intermediate for sentences violating only one hierarchy. Linguistic Empathy (LE) was operationalized as the difference in ratings between sentences violating both vs. neither empathy hierarchy; this measure correlated positively with EQ. Experiment 2 replicated those results with new participants and measured reaction time and EEG during ratings. While there were no effects of hemisphere or visual field on the linguistic variables, the amplitude of a positive event-related potential deflection at 380 ms provided a partial electrophysiological correlate for LE. Its difference measure correlated with behavioral LE but not with EQ. Though preliminary, these experiments show that Linguistic Empathy may share information processing computations with Psychological Empathy and have an electrophysiological correlate.

Hypnotic predictors of agency: Responsiveness to specific suggestions in hypnosis is associated with involuntariness in fibromyalgia.

Hypnosis is associated with alterations in the sense of agency which can play a role in its utilization as a nonpharmacological option for pain management. The goal of the current study was to examine the relationships between responsiveness to suggestions in hypnosis and alterations of the sense of agency among patients with fibromyalgia. Ninety-eight participants with fibromyalgia underwent two hypnotizability assessments followed by the Sense of Agency Rating Scale. Clinical pain measures were also collected. Involuntariness was predicted by responsiveness to control, ideomotor, and dissociation suggestions. Effortlessness was predicted by responsiveness to control and ideomotor suggestions, and age. Hypnotizability was associated with main clinical pain outcomes, but agency alterations were not. Results suggest a shared mechanism between responsiveness to specific suggestions and the sense of agency in hypnosis. We discuss theoretical and clinical implications for pain management and the need for further research.

Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy for Treatment-Resistant Depression.

OBJECTIVE: New antidepressant treatments are needed that are effective, rapid acting, safe, and tolerable. Intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation treatment that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment-resistant depression. Recent methodological advances suggest that the current iTBS protocol might be improved through 1) treating patients with multiple sessions per day at optimally spaced intervals, 2) applying a higher overall pulse dose of stimulation, and 3) precision targeting of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) to subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) circuit. The authors examined the feasibility, tolerability, and preliminary efficacy of Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy (SAINT), an accelerated, high-dose resting-state functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI)-guided iTBS protocol for treatment-resistant depression. METHODS: Twenty-two participants with treatment-resistant depression received open-label SAINT. fcMRI was used to individually target the region of the left DLPFC most anticorrelated with sgACC in each participant. Fifty iTBS sessions (1,800 pulses per session, 50-minute intersession interval) were delivered as 10 daily sessions over 5 consecutive days at 90% resting motor threshold (adjusted for cortical depth). Neuropsychological testing was conducted before and after SAINT. RESULTS: One participant withdrew, leaving a sample size of 21. Nineteen of 21 participants (90.5%) met remission criteria (defined as a score <11 on the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale). In the intent-to-treat analysis, 19 of 22 participants (86.4%) met remission criteria. Neuropsychological testing demonstrated no negative cognitive side effects. CONCLUSIONS: SAINT, an accelerated, high-dose, iTBS protocol with fcMRI-guided targeting, was well tolerated and safe. Double-blinded sham-controlled trials are needed to confirm the remission rate observed in this initial study.