Dataset Information

Association between Ability Emotional Intelligence and Left Insula during Social Judgment of Facial Emotions.

ABSTRACT: The human ability of identifying, processing and regulating emotions from social stimuli is generally referred as Emotional Intelligence (EI). Within EI, Ability EI identifies a performance measure assessing individual skills at perceiving, using, understanding and managing emotions. Previous models suggest that a brain "somatic marker circuitry" (SMC) sustains emotional sub-processes included in EI. Three primary brain regions are included: the amygdala, the insula and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Here, our aim was to investigate the relationship between Ability EI scores and SMC activity during social judgment of emotional faces. Sixty-three healthy subjects completed a test measuring Ability EI and underwent fMRI during a social decision task (i.e. approach or avoid) about emotional faces with different facial expressions. Imaging data revealed that EI scores are associated with left insula activity during social judgment of emotional faces as a function of facial expression. Specifically, higher EI scores are associated with greater left insula activity during social judgment of fearful faces but also with lower activity of this region during social judgment of angry faces. These findings indicate that the association between Ability EI and the SMC activity during social behavior is region- and emotion-specific.

SUBMITTER: Quarto T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4747486 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Association between Ability Emotional Intelligence and Left Insula during Social Judgment of Facial Emotions.

Quarto Tiziana T Blasi Giuseppe G Maddalena Chiara C Viscanti Giovanna G Lanciano Tiziana T Soleti Emanuela E Mangiulli Ivan I Taurisano Paolo P Fazio Leonardo L Bertolino Alessandro A Curci Antonietta A

PloS one 20160209 2

The human ability of identifying, processing and regulating emotions from social stimuli is generally referred as Emotional Intelligence (EI). Within EI, Ability EI identifies a performance measure assessing individual skills at perceiving, using, understanding and managing emotions. Previous models suggest that a brain "somatic marker circuitry" (SMC) sustains emotional sub-processes included in EI. Three primary brain regions are included: the amygdala, the insula and the ventromedial prefront ...[more]

PMID: 26859495

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Project description:IntroductionAmong the functional neuroimaging studies on emotional face processing in schizophrenia, few have used paradigms with facial expressions of disgust. In this study, we investigated whether schizophrenia patients show less insula activation to macro-expressions (overt, clearly visible expressions) and micro-expressions (covert, very brief expressions) of disgust than healthy controls. Furthermore, departing from the assumption that disgust faces signal social rejection, we examined whether perceptual sensitivity to disgust is related to social alienation in patients and controls. We hypothesized that high insula responsiveness to facial disgust predicts social alienation.MethodsWe used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure insula activation in 36 schizophrenia patients and 40 healthy controls. During scanning, subjects passively viewed covert and overt presentations of disgust and neutral faces. To measure social alienation, a social loneliness scale and an agreeableness scale were administered.ResultsSchizophrenia patients exhibited reduced insula activation in response to covert facial expressions of disgust. With respect to macro-expressions of disgust, no between-group differences emerged. In patients, insula responsiveness to covert faces of disgust was positively correlated with social loneliness. Furthermore, patients' insula responsiveness to covert and overt faces of disgust was negatively correlated with agreeableness. In controls, insula responsiveness to covert expressions of disgust correlated negatively with agreeableness.DiscussionSchizophrenia patients show reduced insula responsiveness to micro-expressions but not macro-expressions of disgust compared to healthy controls. In patients, low agreeableness was associated with stronger insula response to micro- and macro-expressions of disgust. Patients with a strong tendency to feel uncomfortable with social interactions appear to be characterized by a high sensitivity for facial expression signaling social rejection. Given the associations of insula responsiveness to covert disgust expression with low agreeableness in healthy individuals, insula responsiveness to expressions of disgust might be in general a neural marker of the personality trait of agreeableness.

Project description:Teachers' social-emotional competence is considered important in order to master the social and emotional challenges inherent in their profession and to build positive teacher-student relationships. In turn, this is key to both teachers' occupational well-being and positive student development. Nonetheless, an instrument assessing the profession-specific knowledge and skills that teachers need to master the social and emotional demands in the classroom is still lacking. Therefore, we developed the Test of Regulation in and Understanding of Social Situations in Teaching (TRUST), which is a theory-based situational judgment test measuring teachers' knowledge about strategies for emotion regulation and relationship management in emotionally and socially challenging situations with students. Results from three studies (N = 166 in-service teachers, N = 73 in-service teachers, N = 107 pre-service teachers) showed satisfactory internal consistency for both the emotion regulation and relationship management subtests. Furthermore, confirmatory factor analyses supported the differentiation between the two facets of social-emotional competence. Regarding convergent validity, results from Study 3 revealed a positive association between the profession-specific TRUST and pre-service teachers' general emotional intelligence. Furthermore, small to moderate correlations with the Big Five personality traits provided evidence for the discriminant validity of TRUST. In Studies 1 and 2, we found evidence for a correlation with external criteria, that is, teachers with higher test scores reported providing more emotional support for students and having better teacher-student relationships. For teachers' occupational well-being, we found a link with symptoms of depersonalization and job satisfaction, but none for emotional exhaustion. We will discuss the use of TRUST in research, for the evaluation of interventions, in teacher education, and professional development and will illustrate ideas for enhancing the tool.

Project description:ImportanceThe ability to identify candidates who will thrive and successfully complete their residency is especially critical for general surgery programs.ObjectiveTo assess the extent to which 3 screening tools used extensively in industrial selection settings-emotional intelligence (EQ), personality profiles, and situational judgment tests (SJTs)-could identify successful surgery residents.Design, setting, and participantsIn this analysis, personality profiles, EQ assessments, and SJTs were administered from July through August 2015 to 51 postgraduate year 1 through 5 general surgery residents in a large general surgery residency program. Associations between these variables and residency performance were investigated through correlation and hierarchical regression analyses.InterventionsCompletion of EQ, personality profiles, and SJT assessments.Main outcomes and measuresPerformance in residency as measured by a comprehensive performance metric. A score of zero represented a resident whose performance was consistent with that of their respective cohort's performance; below zero, worse performance; and greater than zero, better performance.ResultsOf the 61 eligible residents, 51 (84%) chose to participate and 22 (43%) were women. US Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 (USMLE1), but not USMLE2, emerged as a significant factor (t2,49 = 1.98; β = 0.30; P = .03) associated with overall performance. Neither EQ facets nor overall EQ offered significant incremental validity over USMLE1 scores. Inclusion of the personality factors did not significantly alter the test statistic and did not explain any additional portion of the variance. By contrast, inclusion of SJT scores accounted for 15% more of the variance than USMLE1 scores alone, resulting in a total of 25% of the variance explained by both USMLE1 and SJT scores (F2,57 = 7.47; P = .002). Both USMLE1 (t = 2.21; P = .03) and SJT scores (t = 2.97; P = .005) were significantly associated with overall resident performance.Conclusions and relevanceThis study found little support for the use of EQ assessment and only weak support for some distinct personality factors (ie, agreeableness, extraversion, and independence) in surgery resident selection. Performance on the SJT was associated with overall resident performance more than traditional cognitive measures (ie, USMLE scores). These data support further exploration of these 2 screening assessments on a larger scale across specialties and institutions.

Dataset Information

Association between Ability Emotional Intelligence and Left Insula during Social Judgment of Facial Emotions.

Publications

Association between Ability Emotional Intelligence and Left Insula during Social Judgment of Facial Emotions.

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