Exploring the Neural Correlates in Adopting a Realistic View: A Neural Structural and Functional Connectivity Study With Female Nurses

Empathizing leads to positive and negative consequences. To avoid empathy-induced distress, adopting a realistic view (dealing with a situation practically and efficiently independent of one's emotional state) is important. We hypothesized that empathy-demanding professions (e.g., nursing) may...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in human neuroscience 2019-06, Vol.13, p.197-197
Main Authors: Ogino, Yuichi, Kawamichi, Hiroaki, Kakeda, Takahiro, Saito, Shigeru
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
emotion-demanding profession
Emotions
Empathy
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Health surveys
Morphometry
Multiple regression analysis
Neostriatum
Neuroimaging
Neuroscience
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
nurse
Nurses
Nursing
Pain
Prefrontal cortex
Professionals
Professions
realistic view
resting state fMRI
Structure-function relationships
Studies
VBM
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Summary:Empathizing leads to positive and negative consequences. To avoid empathy-induced distress, adopting a realistic view (dealing with a situation practically and efficiently independent of one's emotional state) is important. We hypothesized that empathy-demanding professions (e.g., nursing) may require individuals to adopt a realistic view, which may demonstrate modulated neural structure and functional connectivity. We confirmed that female nurses showed a higher tendency, compared to controls, to adopt a realistic view, using the Fantasy subscale of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; inverse scale of the realistic view). We then employed voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) to explore the neural underpinnings related to realistic view adoption. Nurses exhibited significantly lower gray-matter volume (GMV) in the right striatum. In multiple regression analysis, only the Fantasy subscale score showed a significant positive correlation with GMV within the striatum cluster. Moreover, nurses exhibited lower functional connectivity between the right striatum and the right lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), representing emotional regulation. These findings show that structural differences in the striatum correlated with the realistic view. Furthermore, lower functional connectivity between the striatum and lateral PFC suggests that nurses may use efficient coping strategies that may lessen the recruitment of effortful emotional regulation.
ISSN:1662-5161
1662-5161
DOI:10.3389/fnhum.2019.00197