Antagonistic neural networks underlying differentiated leadership roles

Hippocampal ripples coincide with "up-state" and spindles in retrosplenial cortex

During NREM sleep, hippocampal sharp-wave ripple (SWR) events are thought to stabilize memory traces for long-term storage in downstream neocortical structures. Within the neocortex, a set of distributed networks organized around retrosplenial cortex (RS-network) interact preferentially with the hippocampus purportedly to consolidate those traces. Transient bouts of slow oscillations and sleep spindles in this RS-network are often observed around SWRs, suggesting that these two activities are related and that their interplay possibly contributes to memory consolidation. To investigate how SWRs interact with the RS-network and spindles, we combined cortical wide-field voltage imaging, Electrocorticography, and hippocampal LFP recordings in anesthetized and sleeping mice. Here, we show that, during SWR, "up-states" and spindles reliably co-occur in a cortical subnetwork centered around the retrosplenial cortex. Furthermore, retrosplenial transient activations and spindles predict slow gamma oscillations in CA1 during SWRs. Together, our results suggest that retrosplenial-hippocampal interaction may be a critical pathway of information exchange between the cortex and hippocampus.

Individual differences in the evaluation of ambiguous visual and auditory threat-related expressions

This study investigated the neural correlates of the judgement of auditory and visual ambiguous threat-related information, and the influence of state anxiety on this process. Healthy subjects were scanned using a fast, high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) multiband sequence while they performed a two-alternative forced-choice emotion judgement task on faces and vocal utterances conveying explicit anger or fear, as well as ambiguous ones. Critically, the latter was specific to each subject, obtained through a morphing procedure and selected prior to scanning following a perceptual decision-making task. Behavioural results confirmed a greater task-difficulty for subject-specific ambiguous stimuli and also revealed a judgement bias for visual fear, and, to a lesser extent, for auditory anger. Imaging results showed increased activity in regions of the salience and frontoparietal control networks (FPCNs) and deactivation in areas of the default mode network for ambiguous, relative to explicit, expressions. In contrast, the right amygdala (AMG) responded more strongly to explicit stimuli. Interestingly, its response to the same ambiguous stimulus depended on the subjective judgement of the expression. Finally, we found that behavioural and neural differences between ambiguous and explicit expressions decreased as a function of state anxiety scores. Taken together, our results show that behavioural and brain responses to emotional expressions are determined not only by emotional clarity but also modality and the subjects' subjective perception of the emotion expressed, and that some of these responses are modulated by state anxiety levels.

Aberrant dynamic functional network connectivity in type 2 diabetes mellitus individuals

An increasing number of recent brain imaging studies are dedicated to understanding the neuro mechanism of cognitive impairment in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) individuals. In contrast to efforts to date that are limited to static functional connectivity, here we investigate abnormal connectivity in T2DM individuals by characterizing the time-varying properties of brain functional networks. Using group independent component analysis (GICA), sliding-window analysis, and k-means clustering, we extracted thirty-one intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) and estimated four recurring brain states. We observed significant group differences in fraction time (FT) and mean dwell time (MDT), and significant negative correlation between the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores and FT/MDT. We found that in the T2DM group the inter- and intra-network connectivity decreases and increases respectively for the default mode network (DMN) and task-positive network (TPN). We also found alteration in the precuneus network (PCUN) and enhanced connectivity between the salience network (SN) and the TPN. Our study provides evidence of alterations of large-scale resting networks in T2DM individuals and shed light on the fundamental mechanisms of neurocognitive deficits in T2DM.

Neuromarkers associated with two levels of physical activity in persons with chronic conditions

Although research has largely focused on the effects of physical activity (PA) on the brain, less is known about the influence of the brain on engagement in healthy-living behaviors, such as regular PA. In this secondary analysis of a study of brain activity and participation in healthy-living behaviors, we examined relationships between the activation of selected brain networks and PA in persons self-managing chronic conditions. Fifty-eight individuals with chronic conditions underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while exposed to a protocol consisting of listening to emotion-focused and analytic-focused information and measures of activation of three neuromarkers were obtained: default mode network (DMN), task-positive network (TPN), and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). In an exploratory analysis, we assessed differences in neuromarker activation between two PA levels (representing higher and lower accelerometry-measured PA levels) of 1) moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) minutes, 2) metabolic equivalents expended (METs), and 3) daily steps. Results showed positive associations between MVPA and DMN (r = 0.31, P = 0.018), steps and DMN (r = 0.28, P = 0.035), and MVPA and vmPFC (r = 0.29, P = 0.026). No associations were found between the TPN and any of the PA measures. Individuals with high MVPA and METs had higher DMN values compared with those with low MVPA (t = -2.17, P = 0.035) and METs (t = -2.02, P = 0.048). No differences in TPN and vmPFC were found among PA levels. These results suggest that providing health information that activates the emotion-focused brain network may be more useful than analytic-focused information (centered on logic and reasoning) to assist people with chronic conditions to engage in more PA.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The influence of the brain on engagement in regular physical activity (PA) has not been well studied. We examined relationships between the activation of three neuromarkers and two PA levels in 58 persons self-managing chronic conditions. Findings suggest that individuals who optimally process health-information when the emotional tone is high (Empathic Network; DMN) may engage in more PA compared with individuals who respond to health information when the emotional tone is low (Analytic Network; TPN).

Emotional intelligence weakly predicts academic success in medical programs: a multilevel meta-analysis and systematic review

BACKGROUND

Emotional intelligence (EI) is a predictive factor of academic success in undergraduate Doctor of Medicine (MD) programs. Although some research suggests a positive association between EI and academic success in MD programs, other research reports neither an association nor a negative correlation between the two variables. The current study aimed to resolve these contradictory findings by conducting a systematic review and a meta-analysis using research from 2005 to 2022.

METHODS

Data were analyzed using a multilevel modeling approach to (a) estimate the overall relationship between EI and academic success in MD programs and (b) determine whether the mean effect size varies according to country (United States vs. non-United States countries), age, EI test, EI task nature (ability-based vs. trait-based), EI subscales, and academic performance criteria (grade point average vs. examinations).

RESULTS

Findings from 20 studies (m = 105; N = 4,227) indicated a positive correlation between EI and academic success (r = .13, 95% CI [.08, - .27], p < .01). Moderator analyses indicated that the mean effect size significantly varied according to EI tests and EI subscales. Moreover, three-level multiple regression analyses showed that between-study variance explained 29.5% of the variability in the mean effect size, whereas within-study variance explained 33.5% of the variability in the mean effect.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, the current findings show that EI is significantly, albeit weakly, related to academic success in MD programs. Medical researchers and practitioners can therefore focus on integrating EI-related skills into the MD curriculum or target them through professional development training and programs.

Aberrant protein S-nitrosylation contributes to hyperexcitability-induced synaptic damage in Alzheimer's disease: Mechanistic insights and potential therapies

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is arguably the most common cause of dementia in the elderly and is marked by progressive synaptic degeneration, which in turn leads to cognitive decline. Studies in patients and in various AD models have shown that one of the early signatures of AD is neuronal hyperactivity. This excessive electrical activity contributes to dysregulated neural network function and synaptic damage. Mechanistically, evidence suggests that hyperexcitability accelerates production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) that contribute to neural network impairment and synapse loss. This review focuses on the pathways and molecular changes that cause hyperexcitability and how RNS-dependent posttranslational modifications, represented predominantly by protein S-nitrosylation, mediate, at least in part, the deleterious effects of hyperexcitability on single neurons and the neural network, resulting in synaptic loss in AD.

Neuronal Network Excitability in Alzheimer's Disease: The Puzzle of Similar versus Divergent Roles of Amyloid β and Tau

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most frequent neurodegenerative disorder that commonly causes dementia in the elderly. Recent evidence indicates that network abnormalities, including hypersynchrony, altered oscillatory rhythmic activity, interneuron dysfunction, and synaptic depression, may be key mediators of cognitive decline in AD. In this review, we discuss characteristics of neuronal network excitability in AD, and the role of Aβ and tau in the induction of network hyperexcitability. Many patients harboring genetic mutations that lead to increased Aβ production suffer from seizures and epilepsy before the development of plaques. Similarly, pathologic accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau has been associated with hyperexcitability in the hippocampus. We present common and divergent roles of tau and Aβ on neuronal hyperexcitability in AD, and hypotheses that could serve as a template for future experiments.

Pandemic Leadership: Sex Differences and Their Evolutionary-Developmental Origins

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global societal, economic, and social upheaval unseen in living memory. There have been substantial cross-national differences in the kinds of policies implemented by political decision-makers to prevent the spread of the virus, to test the population, and to manage infected patients. Among other factors, these policies vary with politicians' sex: early findings indicate that, on average, female leaders seem more focused on minimizing direct human suffering caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, while male leaders implement riskier short-term decisions, possibly aiming to minimize economic disruptions. These sex differences are consistent with broader findings in psychology, reflecting women's stronger empathy, higher pathogen disgust, health concern, care-taking orientation, and dislike for the suffering of other people-as well as men's higher risk-taking, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism, and focus on financial indicators of success and status. This review article contextualizes sex differences in pandemic leadership in an evolutionary framework. Evolution by natural selection is the only known process in nature that organizes organisms into higher degrees of functional order, or counteracts the unavoidable disorder that would otherwise ensue, and is therefore essential for explaining the origins of human sex differences. Differential sexual selection and parental investment between males and females, together with the sexual differentiation of the mammalian brain, drive sex differences in cognition and behavioral dispositions, underlying men's and women's leadership styles and decision-making during a global pandemic. According to the sexually dimorphic leadership specialization hypothesis, general psychobehavioral sex differences have been exapted during human evolution to create sexually dimorphic leadership styles. They may be facultatively co-opted by societies and/or followers when facing different kinds of ecological and/or sociopolitical threats, such as disease outbreaks or intergroup aggression. Early evidence indicates that against the invisible viral foe that can bring nations to their knees, the strategic circumspection of empathic feminine health "worriers" may bring more effective and humanitarian outcomes than the devil-may-care incaution of masculine risk-taking "warriors".

Characterization of Brain Signatures to Add Precision to Self-Management Health Information Interventions

BACKGROUND

Although many of the proposed mediating processes of self-management interventions are operationally defined as cognitive processes (e.g., acquiring and using information, self-efficacy, motivation, and decision-making), little is known about their underlying brain mechanisms. Brain biomarkers of how people process health information may be an important characteristic on which to individualize health information to optimize self-management of chronic conditions.

OBJECTIVES

We describe a program of research addressing the identification of brain biomarkers that differentially predict responses to two types of health information (analytic focused and emotion focused) designed to support optimal self-management of chronic conditions.

METHODS

We pooled data from two pilot studies (N = 52) that included functional magnetic resonance imaging during a specially designed, ecologically valid protocol to examine brain activation (task differentiation) associated with two large-scale neural networks-the Analytic Network and the Empathy Network-and the ventral medial prefrontal cortex while individuals responded to different types of health information (analytic and emotional).

RESULTS

Findings indicate that analytic information and emotional information are processed differently in the brain, and the magnitude of this differentiation in response to type of information varies from person to person. Activation in the a priori regions identified in response to both analytic and emotion information was confirmed. The feasibility of obtaining brain imaging data from persons with chronic conditions also is demonstrated.

DISCUSSION

An understanding of brain signatures related to information processing has potential to assist in the design of more individualized, effective self-management interventions.

Defining the Socially Responsible Leader: Revisiting Issues in Responsible Leadership

We renew an exchange of letters from 2008 regarding the meaning of responsible leadership, which applies to senior executives of firms as they attempt to engage in corporate social responsibility. An interesting aspect to this discussion is that, depending on one’s theoretical perspective, responsible leadership can be defined in multiple, somewhat disparate ways. We use the terms strategist versus integrator to characterize the most common delineation of responsible leader orientations. While the strategist orientation implies the planning and use of corporate social responsibility initiatives for the direct targeting of return on investment, the integrator orientation involves senior leaders’ use of corporate social responsibility to serve the interests of a range of corporate stakeholders. Although a divergence of opinion is expressed in our letters, we concur in our conclusion that more research is necessary to better understand these diverse orientations and their effects on organizations.

The Effect of an HIV Self-Management Intervention on Neurocognitive Behavioral Processing

People living with HIV (PLHIV) are increasingly diagnosed with comorbidities which require increasing self-management. We examined the effect of a self-management intervention on neurocognitive behavioral processing. Twenty-nine PLHIV completed a two-group, 3-month randomized clinical trial testing a self-management intervention to improve physical activity and dietary intake. At baseline and 3 months later, everyone completed validated assessments of physical, diet, and neurocognitive processing (functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI]-derived network analyses). We used linear mixed effects modeling with a random intercept to examine the effect of the intervention. The intervention improved healthy eating (p = .08) but did not improve other self-management behaviors. There was a significant effect of the intervention on several aspects of neurocognitive processing including in the task positive network (TPN) differentiation (p = .047) and an increase in the default mode network (DMN) differentiation (p = .10). Self-management interventions may influence neurocognitive processing in PLHIV, but those changes were not associated with positive changes in self-management behavior.

Are We Making Progress? Assessing Goal-Directed Behaviors in Leadership Development Programs

Leadership development programs increasingly help participants engage in their career transitions. Therefore, these programs lead participants to establish not only development goals, which usually involve the improvement of a specific leadership competency, but also goals that relate to career advancement or to achieving a more general life aspiration. Assessing goal attainment, as a measure of program impact, may take years as goals vary greatly in terms of nature, timeframe, and domain. The purpose of this study was to overcome this challenge by providing a measure of goal progress as a necessary antecedent of goal attainment, and which we operationalize through a general scale of goal-directed behaviors. Subject-matter experts assessed the content validity of the measure. Factor analysis, using three samples, revealed four dimensions identified as Sharing Information, Seeking Information, Revising the Plan, and Enacting the Plan. This new scale allows data collection as early as a few months after setting the goals, which can provide practitioners with an earlier indication of program impact and facilitate future academic studies in this field.

The relationships between health information behavior and neural processing in african americans with prehypertension

Information behavior may enhance hypertension self-management in African-Americans. The goal of this substudy was to examine relationships between measures of self-reported health information behavior and neural measures of health information processing in a sample of 19 prehypertensive African-Americans (mean age=52.5, 52.6% women). We measured 1) health information seeking, sharing, and use (surveys) and 2) neural activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess response to health information videos. We hypothesized that differential activation (comparison of analytic vs. empathic brain activity when watching a specific type of video) would indicate better function in three, distinct cognitive domains: 1) Analytic Network, 2) Default Mode Network (DMN), and 3) ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Scores on the information sharing measure (but not seeking or use) were positively associated with differential activation in the vmPFC (rs=.53, p=.02) and the DMN (rs=.43, p=.06). Our findings correspond with previous work indicating that activation of the DMN and vmPFC is associated with sharing information to persuade others, and with behavior change. Although health information is commonly conveyed as detached and analytic in nature, our findings suggest that neural processing of socially and emotionally salient health information is more closely associated with health information sharing.

Virtual Reality as an Emerging Methodology for Leadership Assessment and Training

In developed countries, companies are now substantially reliant on the skills and abilities of their leaders to tackle a variety of complex issues. There is a growing consensus that leadership development training and assessment methods should adopt more holistic methodologies, including those associated with the emotional and neuroendocrine aspects of learning. Recent research into the assessment of leadership competencies has proposed the use of objective methods and measurements based on neuroscience. One of the challenges to be faced in the development of a performance-based methodology to measure leadership skills is how to generate real-life situations with triggers that allow us to study management competencies under controlled laboratory conditions. A way to address this question is to take advantage of virtual environments to recreate real-life situations that might arise in performance-based assessments. We propose virtual reality (VR) as a very promising tool to observe various leadership related behavioral patterns during dynamic, complex and realistic situations. By seamlessly embedding assessment methods into virtual learning environments, VR can provide objective assessment methods with high ecological validity. VR also holds unlimited opportunities for leadership training providing subjects with intelligent tutoring systems that adapts situations in real time according to the observed behaviors.

Computational and neurobiological foundations of leadership decisions

Leaders must take responsibility for others and thus affect the well-being of individuals, organizations, and nations. We identify the effects of responsibility on leaders' choices at the behavioral and neurobiological levels and document the widespread existence of responsibility aversion, that is, a reduced willingness to make decisions if the welfare of others is at stake. In mechanistic terms, basic preferences toward risk, loss, and ambiguity do not explain responsibility aversion, which, instead, is driven by a second-order cognitive process reflecting an increased demand for certainty about the best choice when others' welfare is affected. Finally, models estimating levels of information flow between brain regions that process separate choice components provide the first step in understanding the neurobiological basis of individual variability in responsibility aversion and leadership scores.

The Power of EI Competencies Over Intelligence and Individual Performance: A Task-Dependent Model

Prior research on emotional intelligence (EI) has highlighted the use of incremental models that assume EI and general intelligence (or g) make independent contributions to performance. Questioning this assumption, we study EI's moderation power over the relationship between g and individual performance, by designing and testing a task-dependent interaction model. Reconciling divergent findings in previous studies, we propose that whenever social tasks are at stake, g has a greater effect on performance as EI increases. By contrast, in analytic tasks, a compensatory (or negative) interaction is expected, whereby at higher levels of EI, g contributes to performance at a lesser extent. Based on a behavioral approach to EI, using 360-degree assessments of EI competencies, our findings show that EI moderates the effect of g on the classroom performance of 864 MBA business executives. Whilst in analytic tasks g has a stronger effect on performance at lower levels of EI competencies, our data comes short to show a positive interaction of EI and g in affecting performance on social tasks. Contributions and implications to research and practice are discussed.

Emotional and Social Intelligence Competencies of Incident Team Commanders Fighting Wildfires

Incident Management Teams (IMTs) combat the toughest wildfires in the United States, contending with forces of nature as well as many stakeholders with different agendas. Prior literature on IMTs suggested roles and cognitive sensemaking as key elements for success, but the possible importance of emotional and social intelligence competencies in leadership has not been empirically explored. Sixty critical incidents from interviews of 15 incident commanders were analyzed for emotional and social intelligence competencies in incident management leadership. Seven competencies were found to significantly differentiate outstanding leaders from average leaders. Emotional self-control, adaptability, empathy, coach/mentor, and inspirational leadership significantly or near significantly differentiated the outstanding leaders. Five additional competencies appeared as threshold competencies: achievement orientation, organizational awareness, influence, conflict management, and teamwork. Implications for further research, training, and development are explored.

Neuroscience in Organizational Behavior

In this review, we consider the advent of neuroscience in management and organizational research. We organize our review around two general themes pertaining to how areas of the brain may be relevant to management and organizational behavior. First, intrinsic, at-rest activity in the brain provides trait-like information that can be used to better understand individuals in terms of cognition, emotions, and behaviors. Second, reflexive activity involves an understanding of the brain in terms of its state-like responses to stimuli. In our review, we identify several research challenges and opportunities, such as the need to consider the theoretical basis of neural concepts and measures and the use of team-based neuroscience technologies. In addition, although research in organizational neuroscience is relatively new, some interesting practical implications are raised here. We conclude with a consideration of key limitations, specifically the possibility of excessive reductionism, as well as ethical and professional issues.

A Role for Endogenous Brain States in Organizational Research: Moving Toward a Dynamic View of Cognitive Processes

The dominant view in neuroscience, including functional neuroimaging, is that the brain is an essentially reactive system, in which some sensory input causes some neural activity, which in turn results in some important response such as a motor activity or some hypothesized higher-level cognitive or affective process. This view has driven the rise of neuroscience methods in management and organizational research. However, the reactive view offers at best a partial understanding of how living organisms function in the real world. In fact, like any neural system, the human brain exhibits a constant ongoing activity. This intrinsic brain activity is produced internally, not in response to some environmental stimulus, and is thus termed endogenous brain activity (EBA). In the present article we introduce EBA to organizational research conceptually, explain its measurement, and go on to show that including EBA in management and organizational theory and empirical research has the potential to revolutionize how we think about human choice and behavior in organizations.

Emotional intelligence competencies in engineer’s effectiveness and engagement

Purpose

Little research has explored the importance of interpersonal skills, and more specifically, emotional and social intelligence (ESI) competencies for an engineer’s effectiveness or engagement. Furthermore, to the knowledge, no studies have explored the explanatory power of ESI over and above general mental ability and personality for engineers. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study the authors gathered multi-source data for 40 engineers in a multi-national manufacturing company.

Findings

The authors found that ESI as observed by their peers significantly predicted engineer effectiveness (ΔR2=0.313), while general mental ability (g) and personality did not. In the same study, an engineer’s engagement in their work was significantly predicted by the degree of shared vision within their teams, while g, personality and ESI did not predict engagement.

Research limitations/implications

The authors explore the implications of the findings for corporate training and development, undergraduate education, and graduate education of engineers.

Originality/value

The authors draw on 30 years of longitudinal studies showing ESI and quality of relationships can be significantly improved with the appropriate pedagogy emphasizing the building of one’s vision, developmental approaches to ESI, developing a shared vision with others, and inspirational coaching.

Network abnormalities and interneuron dysfunction in Alzheimer disease

The function of neural circuits and networks can be controlled, in part, by modulating the synchrony of their components' activities. Network hypersynchrony and altered oscillatory rhythmic activity may contribute to cognitive abnormalities in Alzheimer disease (AD). In this condition, network activities that support cognition are altered decades before clinical disease onset, and these alterations predict future pathology and brain atrophy. Although the precise causes and pathophysiological consequences of these network alterations remain to be defined, interneuron dysfunction and network abnormalities have emerged as potential mechanisms of cognitive dysfunction in AD and related disorders. Here, we explore the concept that modulating these mechanisms may help to improve brain function in these conditions.

Why Do You Believe in God? Relationships between Religious Belief, Analytic Thinking, Mentalizing and Moral Concern

Prior work has established that analytic thinking is associated with disbelief in God, whereas religious and spiritual beliefs have been positively linked to social and emotional cognition. However, social and emotional cognition can be subdivided into a number of distinct dimensions, and some work suggests that analytic thinking is in tension with some aspects of social-emotional cognition. This leaves open two questions. First, is belief linked to social and emotional cognition in general, or a specific dimension in particular? Second, does the negative relationship between belief and analytic thinking still hold after relationships with social and emotional cognition are taken into account? We report eight hypothesis-driven studies which examine these questions. These studies are guided by a theoretical model which focuses on the distinct social and emotional processing deficits associated with autism spectrum disorders (mentalizing) and psychopathy (moral concern). To our knowledge no other study has investigated both of these dimensions of social and emotion cognition alongside analytic thinking. We find that religious belief is robustly positively associated with moral concern (4 measures), and that at least part of the negative association between belief and analytic thinking (2 measures) can be explained by a negative correlation between moral concern and analytic thinking. Using nine different measures of mentalizing, we found no evidence of a relationship between mentalizing and religious or spiritual belief. These findings challenge the theoretical view that religious and spiritual beliefs are linked to the perception of agency, and suggest that gender differences in religious belief can be explained by differences in moral concern. These findings are consistent with the opposing domains hypothesis, according to which brain areas associated with moral concern and analytic thinking are in tension.

Coordinate-based (ALE) meta-analysis of brain activation in patients with fibromyalgia

There are an increasing number of neuroimaging studies that allow a better understanding of symptoms, neural correlates and associated conditions of fibromyalgia. However, the results of these studies are difficult to compare, as they include a heterogeneous group of patients, use different stimulation paradigms, tasks, and the statistical evaluation of neuroimaging data shows high variability. Therefore, this meta-analytic approach aimed at evaluating potential alterations in neuronal brain activity or structure related to pain processing in fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) patients, using quantitative coordinate-based "activation likelihood estimation" (ALE) meta-analysis. 37 FMS papers met the inclusion criteria for an ALE analysis (1,264 subjects, 274 activation foci). A pooled ALE analysis of different modalities of neuroimaging and additional analyses according functional and structural changes indicated differences between FMS patients and controls in the insula, amygdala, anterior/mid cingulate cortex, superior temporal gyrus, the primary and secondary somatosensory cortex, and lingual gyrus. Our analysis showed consistent results across FMS studies with potential abnormalities especially in pain-related brain areas. Given that similar alterations have already been demonstrated in patients with other chronic pain conditions and the lack of adequate control groups of chronic pain subjects in most FMS studies, it is not clear however, whether these findings are associated with chronic pain in general or are unique features of patients with FMS. Hum Brain Mapp 37:1749-1758, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Developing compassionate leadership in health care: an integrative review

Compassionate health care is universally valued as a social and moral good to be upheld and sustained. Leadership is considered pivotal for enabling the development and preservation of compassionate health care organizations. Strategies for developing compassionate health care leadership in the complex, fast-moving world of today will require a paradigm shift from the prevalent dehumanizing model of the organization as machine to one of the organizations as a living complex adaptive system. It will also require the abandonment of individualistic, heroic models of leadership to one of shared, distributive, and adaptive leadership. "Command and control" leadership, accompanied by stifling regulation, rigid prescriptions, coercive punishments, and/or extrinsic rewards, infuses fear into the system with consequent disempowerment and disunity within the workforce, and the attrition of innovation and compassion. It must be eschewed. Instead, leadership should be developed throughout the organization with collective holistic learning strategies combined with high levels of staff support and engagement. Culture and leadership are interdependent and synergistic; their codevelopment needs to be grounded in a sophisticated, scientifically based account of human nature held within a coherent philosophical framework reflected by modern organizational and leadership theories. Developing leadership for compassionate care requires acknowledging and making provision for the difficulties and challenges of working in an anxiety-laden context. This means providing appropriate training and well-being programs, sustaining high levels of trust and mutually supportive interpersonal connections, and fostering the sharing of knowledge, skills, and workload across silos. It requires enabling people to experiment without fear of reprisal, to reflect on their work, and to view errors as opportunities for learning and improvement. Tasks and relational care need to be integrated into a coherent unity, creating space for real dialog between patients, clinicians, and managers, so that together they can cocreate ways to flourish in the context of illness and dying.

A Cross-Sectional Relationship Between Social Capital, Self-Compassion, and Perceived HIV Symptoms

CONTEXT

Individual resources of social capital and self-compassion are associated with health behaviors and perceived symptoms, suggesting that both are positive resources that can be modified to improve a person's symptom experience.

OBJECTIVES

The aim was to examine the relationship between self-compassion and social capital and its impact on current HIV symptom experience in adult people living with HIV (PLWH). We further explored the impact of age on this relationship.

METHODS

We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 2182 PLWH at 20 sites in five countries. Social capital, self-compassion, and HIV symptom experience were evaluated using valid and reliable scales. To account for inflated significance associated with a large sample size, we took a random sample of 28% of subjects (n = 615) and conducted correlation analyses and zero-inflated Poisson regression, controlling for known medical and demographic variables impacting HIV symptom experience.

RESULTS

Controlling for age, sex at birth, year of HIV diagnosis, comorbid health conditions, employment, and income, our model significantly predicted HIV symptom experience (overall model z = 5.77, P < 0.001). Employment status and social capital were consistent, negative, and significant predictors of HIV symptom experience. Self-compassion did not significantly predict HIV symptom experience. For those reporting symptoms, an increase in age was significantly associated with an increase in symptoms.

CONCLUSION

Employment and social capital modestly predicted current HIV symptom experience. Social capital can be incorporated into symptom management interventions, possibly as a way to reframe a person's symptom appraisal. This may be increasingly important as PLWH age. The relationship between employment status and HIV symptom experience was significant and should be explored further.

The effect of relationship quality on individual perceptions of social responsibility in the US

Social responsibility (SR) has been of continuing interest in the U.S. and around the world. Organizations make a wide variety of SR decisions that represent differing viewpoints. While a number of definitions of SR exist, many of these definitions indicate that SR decisions may be viewed as existing of various facets, such as legal/regulatory, financial/economic, ethical, environmental, and voluntary. While drivers of SR have been proposed, there has been limited research at a micro-level on how individuals perceive SR activities by the organizations where they work. Based on a prior qualitative study (Thornton and Byrd, 2013) that found SR decisions are related to several traits and influenced by relationships, a model was proposed and tested in this research. The traits found relevant in the qualitative research were conscientiousness, especially in the sense of being responsible, and self-efficacy. Relationship quality was assessed based on positive and negative emotional attractors as proposed in intentional change theory. Perceptions of individuals in management and non-management showed that relationship quality mediated the effect of conscientiousness and general self-efficacy on the SR. Because there are multiple facets, the author made use of Carroll’s (1991) pyramid of SR to identify activities that business owners and managers consider relevant. The findings indicate that conscientiousness is related to specific SR activities in the areas of legal/regulatory, ethical and discretionary dimensions while general self-efficacy is related to financial/economic and legal/regulatory dimensions. The presence of relationship quality enhanced the effects of both conscientiousness and general self-efficacy on the various SR dimensions. This suggests that individuals perceived SR activities along different traits and that enhancing these traits might improve perceptions of SR decisions.

Vision-based coaching: optimizing resources for leader development

Leaders develop in the direction of their dreams, not in the direction of their deficits. Yet many coaching interactions intended to promote a leader's development fail to leverage the benefits of the individual's personal vision. Drawing on intentional change theory, this article postulates that coaching interactions that emphasize a leader's personal vision (future aspirations and core identity) evoke a psychophysiological state characterized by positive emotions, cognitive openness, and optimal neurobiological functioning for complex goal pursuit. Vision-based coaching, via this psychophysiological state, generates a host of relational and motivational resources critical to the developmental process. These resources include: formation of a positive coaching relationship, expansion of the leader's identity, increased vitality, activation of learning goals, and a promotion-orientation. Organizational outcomes as well as limitations to vision-based coaching are discussed.

The role of personal purpose and personal goals in symbiotic visions

It is believed that symbiotic visions can drive employees and organizations toward a common objective based on the premise that people have a high level of self-motivation and engagement when they are working toward something very personal. The field of organizational development has been aspiring to help organizations and people align their visions for decades without much, if any, empirical support for the role of personal purpose and goals in the symbiotic relationship with a company vision. This qualitative study examines the role personal purpose and goals play in how high performing leaders align to their company's vision. Whether and how senior managers articulate this alignment, and its correlation to their motivation and engagement, was examined. An observation was that most senior managers within organizations with a well-developed and widely known higher purpose vision are driven by something personal, identified as either personal goals or a personal purpose. One of the key findings is that personal purpose and goals, when aligned to a company vision, appear to impact motivation and engagement in different ways. When alignment is felt through the sense of the greater purpose, there is a deep, almost spiritual, commitment to making the world a better place and helping the organization contribute to that. This seems to motivate them to guide the organization toward its higher purpose vision. When alignment is felt through the organization's alignment to one's personal goals, there is a great sense of commitment to completing the steps or tasks necessary to move toward the vision, yet a clear delineation between work and life ambitions.

Dehumanization in organizational settings: some scientific and ethical considerations

Dehumanizing attitudes and behaviors frequently occur in organizational settings and are often viewed as an acceptable, and even necessary, strategy for pursuing personal and organizational goals. Here I examine a number of commonly held beliefs about dehumanization and argue that there is relatively little support for them in light of the evidence emerging from social psychological and neuroscientific research. Contrary to the commonly held belief that everyday forms of dehumanization are innocent and inconsequential, the evidence shows profoundly negative consequences for both victims and perpetrators. As well, the belief that suppressing empathy automatically leads to improved problem solving is not supported by the evidence. The more general belief that empathy interferes with problem solving receives partial support, but only in the case of mechanistic problem solving. Overall, I question the usefulness of dehumanization in organizational settings and argue that it can be replaced by superior strategies that are ethically more acceptable and do not entail the severely negative consequences associated with dehumanization.

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) as a new tool for neuroeconomic research

Over the last decade, the application of neuroscience to economic research has gained in importance and the number of neuroeconomic studies has grown extensively. The most common method for these investigations is fMRI. However, fMRI has limitations (particularly concerning situational factors) that should be countered with other methods. This review elaborates on the use of functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) as a new and promising tool for investigating economic decision making both in field experiments and outside the laboratory. We describe results of studies investigating the reliability of prototype NIRS studies, as well as detailing experiments using conventional and stationary fNIRS devices to analyze this potential. This review article shows that further research using mobile fNIRS for studies on economic decision making outside the laboratory could be a fruitful avenue helping to develop the potential of a new method for field experiments outside the laboratory.