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Annalina V. Mayer

Bio: Annalina V. Mayer is an academic researcher from University of Lübeck. The author has contributed to research in topics: Autism & Psychology. The author has an hindex of 3, co-authored 11 publications receiving 33 citations.
Topics: Autism, Psychology, Embarrassment, Medicine, Insula

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the functional neuroanatomy and neurobiology of social feelings and their role in adaptive social functioning are examined, focusing on how they relate to cognition, emotion, behavior and well-being.

30 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Self-related belief formation is surprisingly negatively biased in situations suggesting opportunities to improve and this bias is shaped by trait differences in self-esteem and social anxiety.
Abstract: During everyday interactions people constantly receive feedback on their behavior, which shapes their beliefs about themselves. While classic studies in the field of social learning suggest that people have a tendency to learn better from good news (positivity bias) when they perceive little opportunities to immediately improve their own performance, we show updating is biased towards negative information when participants perceive the opportunity to adapt their performance during learning. In three consecutive experiments we applied a computational modeling approach on the subjects' learning behavior and reveal the negativity bias was specific for learning about own compared to others' performances and was modulated by prior beliefs about the self, i.e. stronger negativity bias in individuals lower in self-esteem. Social anxiety affected self-related negativity biases only when individuals were exposed to a judging audience thereby potentially explaining the persistence of negative self-images in socially anxious individuals which commonly surfaces in social settings. Self-related belief formation is therefore surprisingly negatively biased in situations suggesting opportunities to improve and this bias is shaped by trait differences in self-esteem and social anxiety.

20 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that the valence and intensity of interpersonal emotions strongly depend on the experimental context and that empathy and reward circuits are involved in shaping the subjective experience.

20 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a double-blind, cross-over, placebo-controlled fMRI-protocol, in which a single dose of oxytocin or placebo was applied intranasally.
Abstract: Evidence suggests that intranasal application of oxytocin facilitates empathy and modulates its underlying neural processes, which are often impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Oxytocin has therefore been considered a promising candidate for the treatment of social difficulties in ASD. However, evidence linking oxytocin treatment to social behavior and brain function in ASD is limited and heterogeneous effects might depend on variations in the oxytocin-receptor gene (OXTR). We examined 25 male ASD patients without intellectual disability in a double-blind, cross-over, placebo-controlled fMRI-protocol, in which a single dose of oxytocin or placebo was applied intranasally. Patients performed three experiments in the MRI examining empathy for other’s physical pain, basic emotions, and social pain. All participants were genotyped for the rs53576 single-nucleotide polymorphism of the OXTR. Oxytocin increased bilateral amygdala responsiveness during the physical pain task for both painful and neutral stimuli. Other than that, there were no effects of oxytocin treatment. OXTR genotype did not significantly interact with oxytocin treatment. Our results contribute to the growing body of empirical literature suggesting heterogenous effects of oxytocin administration in ASD. To draw clinically relevant conclusions regarding the usefulness of oxytocin treatment, however, empirical studies need to consider methods of delivery, dose, and moderating individual factors more carefully in larger samples.

11 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
26 Jun 2020-Cortex
TL;DR: For the first time, regions within the mentalizing network that contribute to a rather spontaneous versus a rather deliberate and motivated act of understanding other's mental states in the context of vicarious embarrassment are dissociate.

6 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The main focus of the present review lies on the intraindividual changes in empathy and perspective-taking across the lifespan and on interindividual differences on subclinical and clinical levels.
Abstract: Humans have the capacity to share others' emotions, be they positive or negative. Elicited by the observed or imagined emotion of another person, an observer develops a similar emotional state herself. This capacity, empathy, is one of the pillars of social understanding and interaction as it creates a representation of another's inner, mental state. Empathy needs to be dissociated from other social emotions and, crucially, also from cognitive mechanisms of understanding others, the ability to take others' perspective. Here, we describe the conceptual distinctions of these constructs and review behavioral and neural evidence that dissociates them. The main focus of the present review lies on the intraindividual changes in empathy and perspective-taking across the lifespan and on interindividual differences on subclinical and clinical levels. The data show that empathy and perspective-taking recruit distinct neural circuits and can be discerned already during early and throughout adult development. Both capacities also vary substantially between situations and people. Differences can be systematically related to situational characteristics as well as personality traits and mental disorders. The clear distinction of affect sharing from other social emotions like compassion and from cognitive perspective-taking, argues for a clear-cut terminology to describe these constructs. In our view, this speaks against using empathy as an umbrella term encompassing all affective and cognitive routes to understanding others. Unifying the way we speak about these phenomena will help to further research on their underlying mechanisms, psychopathological alterations, and plasticity in training and therapy.

77 citations

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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide a review of the empathy literature and the dispositional and situational factors affecting it, and suggest propositions for future research to advance theory and managerial practice on the use of empathy to improve service outcomes for interacting actors.
Abstract: Empathy is a core characteristic of helping and caring interactions and thus is fundamental to service. Yet, to date, service marketing literature has focused on a restricted view of the value of empathy as it leads to improved service quality perceptions and successful sales outcomes. The aim of this paper is to provide a review of the empathy literature and the dispositional and situational factors affecting it, so as to further explore its potential benefits and limitations for service.,A summative review of the empathy literature uncovers cause–effect relationships and their potential boundary conditions. Theoretical propositions set an agenda for future research on empathy for service that breaks new ground.,Empathy can reduce anti-social, revenge, discrimination and unethical behaviors in service settings. It can also improve value-in-context experiences for users of service innovations. Notwithstanding its potential benefits, empathy can diminish the objectivity and performance of service providers when experienced at extreme levels. Empathy can also serve as an ingratiation influence tactic and can be detrimental to the target in embarrassing service contexts.,This paper suggests propositions for future research to advance theory and managerial practice on the use of empathy to improve service outcomes for interacting actors. It also alludes to the potential dark side of empathy when experienced at excessive levels or when used to manipulate.

44 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article argued that the bias is adaptive and that it helps us influence people and social structures so that they come to match our beliefs about them, ensuring that over time we don't become epistemically disconnected from social reality but can navigate it more easily.
Abstract: Confirmation bias is one of the most widely discussed epistemically problematic cognitions, challenging reliable belief formation and the correction of inaccurate views. Given its problematic nature, it remains unclear why the bias evolved and is still with us today. To offer an explanation, several philosophers and scientists have argued that the bias is in fact adaptive. I critically discuss three recent proposals of this kind before developing a novel alternative, what I call the ‘reality-matching account’. According to the account, confirmation bias evolved because it helps us influence people and social structures so that they come to match our beliefs about them. This can result in significant developmental and epistemic benefits for us and other people, ensuring that over time we don’t become epistemically disconnected from social reality but can navigate it more easily. While that might not be the only evolved function of confirmation bias, it is an important one that has so far been neglected in the theorizing on the bias.

41 citations

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TL;DR: The findings suggest that current mindfulness meditation could provide an adaptive mechanism in coping with distress due to the empathic sharing of others' suffering, thereby possibly enabling compassionate behavior.
Abstract: Mindfulness has been shown to reduce stress, promote health, and well-being, as well as to increase compassionate behavior toward others. It reduces distress to one's own painful experiences, going along with altered neural responses, by enhancing self-regulatory processes and decreasing emotional reactivity. In order to investigate if mindfulness similarly reduces distress and neural activations associated with empathy for others' socially painful experiences, which might in the following more strongly motivate prosocial behavior, the present study compared trait, and state effects of long-term mindfulness meditation (LTM) practice. To do so we acquired behavioral data and neural activity measures using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during an empathy for social pain task while manipulating the meditation state between two groups of LTM practitioners that were matched with a control group. The results show increased activations of the anterior insula (AI) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as well as the medial prefrontal cortex and temporal pole when sharing others' social suffering, both in LTM practitioners and controls. However, in LTM practitioners, who practiced mindfulness meditation just prior to observing others' social pain, left AI activation was lower and the strength of AI activation following the mindfulness meditation was negatively associated with trait compassion in LTM practitioners. The findings suggest that current mindfulness meditation could provide an adaptive mechanism in coping with distress due to the empathic sharing of others' suffering, thereby possibly enabling compassionate behavior. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4034-4046, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

40 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The history of brain drug delivery is reviewed beginning with the first demonstration, in 1914, that a drug for syphilis did not enter the brain, due to the presence of a blood–brain barrier (BBB).
Abstract: The history of brain drug delivery is reviewed beginning with the first demonstration, in 1914, that a drug for syphilis, salvarsan, did not enter the brain, due to the presence of a blood–brain barrier (BBB). Owing to restricted transport across the BBB, FDA-approved drugs for the CNS have been generally limited to lipid-soluble small molecules. Drugs that do not cross the BBB can be re-engineered for transport on endogenous BBB carrier-mediated transport and receptor-mediated transport systems, which were identified during the 1970s–1980s. By the 1990s, a multitude of brain drug delivery technologies emerged, including trans-cranial delivery, CSF delivery, BBB disruption, lipid carriers, prodrugs, stem cells, exosomes, nanoparticles, gene therapy, and biologics. The advantages and limitations of each of these brain drug delivery technologies are critically reviewed.

39 citations