The ability to predict the behavior of others based on their mental states is crucial for social functioning. Previous studies have provided evidence for the role of Oxytocin (OXT) in enhancing the ability to mentalize. It has also been demonstrated that the effect of OXT seems to strongly depend on socio-cognitive skills with more pronounced effects in individuals with lower socio-cognitive sk...

Anterior insula and adjacent frontal operculum (hereafter referred to as IFO) are active during exposure to tastants/odorants (particularly disgusting ones), and during the viewing of disgusted facial expressions. Together with lesion data, the IFO has thus been proposed to be crucial in processing disgust-related stimuli. Here, we examined IFO involvement in the processing of other people's gu...

The aim of the present study was to examine the validity of Prosocial Tendency Measure (PTM) in Iranian students. This scale measures 6 types of prosocial tendencies including altruistic, anonymous, dire, emotional, compliant and public prosocial tendencies (Carlo and Randal, 2002). We used 182 undergraduate students in order to study the validity of the scale by confirmatory factor analysis me...

The debate over the ethics of radically, technologically altering the capacities and traditional form of the human body is rife with appeals to and dismissals of the importance of the integrity of the human species. Species-integrist arguments can be found in authors as varied as Annas, Fukuyama, Habermas, and Agar. However, the ethical salience of species integrity is widely contested by autho...

introduction: patient-nurse relationship has been recognized as the key factor in nursing practice. considering the importance of professional relationship in nursing discipline, and especially empathy and its professional role, the need to address this phenomenon in nursing education in iran is profoundly felt. objective: the present study was conducted with the aim to compare level of empathy...

Internet addiction disorder (IAD) is associated with deficits in social communication and avoidance of social contact. It has been hypothesized that people with IAD may have an impaired capacity for empathy. The purpose of the current study was to examine the processing of empathy for others' pain in IADs. Event-related potentials produced in response to pictures showing others in painful and n...

BACKGROUND The academic and medical literature highlights the positive effects of empathy for patient care. Yet, very little attention has been given to the impact of the requirement for empathy on the physicians themselves and on their emotional wellbeing. DISCUSSION The medical profession requires doctors to be both clinically competent and empathetic towards the patients. In practice, acco...

Empathy entails the capacities to resonate with another person's emotions, understand his/her thoughts and feelings, separate our own thoughts and emotions from those of the observed and responding with the appropriate prosocial and helpful behavior. While there is abundant research on the neurobiological mechanisms of some components of empathy (e.g., emotional contagion), few studies have con...