Emotion intensity modulates perspective taking in men and women: an event-related potential study

Reduced late positive potentials to distress in individuals with high psychopathic traits during pain judgment tasks

This study examined the empathic processing of individuals with psychopathic traits and healthy controls in response to pain, applying affective perspective-taking (Self vs. Other). Twenty subjects with high psychopathic traits and twenty control subjects performed pain judgment tasks in the study. During the tasks, late positive potentials (LPPs) of the participants were measured to assess emotional processing in reaction to visual stimuli depicting painful or non-painful situations. In early LPP time stage (500-700 ms), the control group and the psychopathic trait group exhibited comparable levels of empathic processing regarding pain. However, in late LPP time window (700-1100 ms), the control group showed a greater LPP amplitude to Pain stimuli than No-pain stimuli, whereas the psychopathic trait group exhibited non-significant amplitude differences between Pain and No-pain stimuli. These findings imply that individuals with high psychopathic traits may swiftly terminate the processing and encounter difficulties in reappraising distress cues, especially in the late stage, providing psychophysiological support for distinctive empathic processing with temporal aspects.

COVID-19 Pandemic: Influence of Gender Identity on Stress, Anxiety, and Depression Levels in Canada

Background: This cross-sectional study explored variation of the prevalence of perceived stress, depression and anxiety among different self-identified gender identity groups in the Canadian population during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Anxiety, depression, and stress were assessed using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) respectively. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance. Results: There were 8267 respondents to the online survey; 982 (12.0%) were male-identified, 7120 (86.9%) female-identified, and 92 (1.1%) identified as a diverse gender group. Prevalence rates for clinically meaningful anxiety (333 (41.7%), 2882 (47.6%), 47 (61.0%)), depression (330 (40.2%), 2736 (44.3%), 46 (59.7%)), and stress (702 (79.6%), 5711 (86.4%), 74 (90.2%)) were highest among respondents who self-identified as “other gender” followed by female-identified and then male-identified, respectively. There were statistically significant differences between gender groups for mean scores on GAD-7 (F (2, 6929) = 18.02, p < 0.001), PHQ-9 (F (2, 191.4) = 11.17, p < 0.001), and PSS (F (2, 204.6) = 21.13, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Gender identity differences exist in terms of the prevalence and severity of anxiety, depressive, and stress symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. This finding highlights the importance of incorporating self-identified gender identity in medical research, clinical practice, and policy.