{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,24]],"date-time":"2026-09-24T02:59:12Z","timestamp":1790218752295,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Cambridge University Press (CUP)","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,5]],"date-time":"2026-08-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785888000000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":216,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["cambridge.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Acta Neuropsychiatr."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026]]},"abstract":"Abstract<\/jats:title>\n \n Objective:<\/jats:title>\n To investigate whether transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) modulates empathic choice, and whether any such effect differs for ingroup versus outgroup targets, in a single-session experiment.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Methods:<\/jats:title>\n Twenty-eight healthy East Asian participants were randomly assigned to active taVNS or sham groups. After 15 minutes of stimulation, participants completed an adapted Empathy Selection Task (EST), choosing to empathise with or describe facial expressions of ingroup (Asian) and outgroup (African) targets displaying negative emotions. Given the exploratory, small-sample design, a generalised linear mixed model (GLMM) with a binomial distribution and logit link, modelling subject-level random intercepts, was used and effects are reported as odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Results:<\/jats:title>\n \n The sham group showed significantly lower empathic choice than the active group (\n \u03b2<\/jats:italic>\n = \u2212 0.82; OR = 0.44, 95% CI [0.22,0.90],\n p<\/jats:italic>\n = 0.024). The main effect of target ethnicity was non-significant (OR = 0.88, 95% CI [0.60,1.28],\n p<\/jats:italic>\n = 0.494), indicating no detectable baseline ingroup bias. A group \u00d7 ethnicity interaction (OR = 1.74, 95% CI [1.01,3.00],\n p<\/jats:italic>\n = 0.048) indicated that the taVNS effect was selectively larger for outgroup targets; this pattern survived parametric bootstrap (bootstrap\n p<\/jats:italic>\n = 0.022) and Bayesian re-analysis (96.7% of the posterior above zero), though its credible interval narrowly included no effect, marking it as supported but not decisive.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Conclusion:<\/jats:title>\n taVNS may increase motivational empathy and selectively enhance empathic choice toward outgroup negative emotions. These exploratory findings are consistent with, but do not directly test, the aversiveness reduction hypothesis, and require replication with autonomic measures and larger samples.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1017\/neu.2026.10091","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,5]],"date-time":"2026-08-05T04:16:17Z","timestamp":1785903377000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/policypage","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation increases empathic choice toward outgroup negative emotions"],"prefix":"10.1017","volume":"38","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3625-0856","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"June Christoph","family":"Kang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/047dqcg40","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Korea University"},{"name":"Empathy Research Institute"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"56","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,5]]},"container-title":["Acta Neuropsychiatrica"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/services\/aop-cambridge-core\/content\/view\/S092427082610091X","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,24]],"date-time":"2026-09-24T02:04:31Z","timestamp":1790215471000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/product\/identifier\/S092427082610091X\/type\/journal_article"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026]]},"references-count":0,"alternative-id":["S092427082610091X"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/neu.2026.10091","relation":{},"ISSN":["0924-2708","1601-5215"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0924-2708","type":"print"},{"value":"1601-5215","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026]]},"assertion":[{"value":"\u00a9 The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Scandinavian College of Neuropsychopharmacology","name":"copyright","label":"Copyright","group":{"name":"copyright_and_licensing","label":"Copyright and Licensing"}},{"value":"This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original article is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press or the rights holder(s) must be obtained prior to any commercial use.","name":"license","label":"License","group":{"name":"copyright_and_licensing","label":"Copyright and Licensing"}},{"value":"This content has been made available to all.","name":"free","label":"Free to read"}],"article-number":"e50"}}