Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2017 Sep 4;11:165. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00165

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

Copyright © 2017 Cheng, Chen and Decety.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

PMC Copyright notice

Mediation analysis of context-dependent valence ratings. (A) Path diagram demonstrates the relationship between variables in the path model. Work experience (left) as the predictor variable predicts the hemodynamic activity in the putamen (top) and dlPFC (bottom). The connection of work experience to each brain mediator (putamen or dlPFC) is the a path. The lines are labeled with path coefficients, and standard errors are shown in parentheses. The connection of each mediator to the outcome (valence ratings) is the b path. They are calculated controlling for work experience and for other mediators, as the standard in mediation models. The inclusion of burnout levels into the mediation model abolishes the causal relationship between work experience (left panel), putamen activity (top), and context-dependent valence ratings (right panel). Scores on reduced personal accomplishment, as one of burnout constructs, moderates the mediation effect of putamen (path a1, dash arrow). ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05, two-tailed. The direct path is the c′ path, which is calculated controlling for both mediators. (B) Substantiation of the mediation path a, b and c. Regression scatterplots depict the relationships between predictor (i.e., working experience) and ROIs (path a1 and a2). Partial regression scatterplots demonstrate the relationships between ROIs (putamen and dlPFC) and valence ratings (path b1 and b2). The mediation effect (a1*b1 and a2*b2) is substantiated by the bootstrapped distributions. The range on the x-axis spanned by the lighter gray portion of the histogram is the 95% confidence interval for the effect. (C) A significant correlation between work experience and putamen (path a1) was found before Burnout being included into the mediation model (left panel). One of the Burnout subscales, reduced personal accomplishment, affected achievement-motivational processing in the putamen and modulated the mediation effect of putamen (path a1), thus abolish the causal relationship between work experience, putamen and valence processing in hospital context (right panel).