Neuro-cognitive correlates of alexithymia in patients with circumscribed prefrontal cortex damage

The impact of subclinical psychotic symptoms on delay and effort discounting: Insights from behavioral, computational, and electrophysiological methods

BACKGROUND

The ability to value rewards is crucial for adaptive behavior and is influenced by the time and effort required to obtain them. Impairments in these computations have been observed in patients with schizophrenia and may be present in individuals with subclinical psychotic symptoms (PS).

METHODS

In this study, we employed delay and effort-discounting tasks with food rewards in thirty-nine participants divided into high and low levels of PS. We investigated the underlying mechanisms of effort-discounting through computational modelling of dopamine prefrontal and subcortical circuits and the electrophysiological biomarker of both delay and effort-discounting alterations through resting-state frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA).

RESULTS

Results revealed greater delay discounting in the High PS group compared to the Low PS group but no differences in the effort discounting task. However, in this task, the same levels of estimated dopamine release were associated with a lower willingness to exert effort for high-calorie food rewards in High PS participants compared to Low PS participants. Although there were no significant differences in FAA between the High PS and Low PS groups, FAA was significantly associated with the severity of participants' negative symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study suggests that the dysfunction in temporal and effort cost computations, seen in patients with schizophrenia, may be present in individuals with subclinical PS. These findings provide valuable insight into the early vulnerability markers (behavioral, computational, and electrophysiological) for psychosis, which may aid in the development of preventive interventions. These findings are preliminary and warrant further investigation.

Longitudinal patterns of alcohol use and psychological symptoms during COVID-19 pandemic and role of alexithymia: A latent transition analysis in the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic has been posing widespread influence on mental well-being. However, research on the dynamic relations between alcohol use and psychological symptoms in the context of the pandemic and the role of alexithymic traits in predicting the development of mental health problems longitudinally remains scarce.

METHODS

Latent profile and transition analyses were conducted to model the longitudinal patterns of transitions in the profiles of alcohol use and psychological symptoms across 10 months during the pandemic (from May 2020 to March 2021) and to investigate the role of alexithymia and its dimensions Difficulty Identifying and Describing Feelings (DIF and DDF), and Externally Oriented Thinking (EOT) in 720 parents from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study.

RESULTS

Three profiles, Risky Drinking, Distressed Non-Risky Drinking, and Non-Distressed, Non-Risky Drinking, and their transitions were identified. The role of alexithymia appeared to be stronger in Risky Drinking than Non-Distressed, Non-Risky Drinking. DIF predicted the development of symptoms in Risky Drinking, whereas DDF predicted Risky Drinking remaining stable over time and showed a trend towards psychological distress in Risky Drinking and Non-Distressed, Non-Risky Drinking. EOT was more likely to be a risk factor for Risky Drinking remaining constant and Non-Distressed, Non-Risky Drinking becoming Risky Drinking.

LIMITATIONS

This study was mainly limited by the generalizability of the findings.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings add deeper insights into the longitudinal development of alcohol use and psychological symptoms as well as evidence on the role of alexithymia in shaping mental health, providing implications for tailoring clinical preventive and therapeutic measures.

The relationship between alexithymia, reading the mind in the eyes and cognition in patients with multiple sclerosis

AIM

The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of alexithymia, difficulty in recognizing one's own and others' emotions, to determine the ability to read the mind in the eyes that evaluates the emotions of others, and to assess the relationship between these parameters and demographic characteristics, cognition, anxiety and depression in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS).

MATERIAL AND METHOD

Seventy patients presenting to the neurology clinic and diagnosed with MS and 70 healthy volunteers with similar demographic characteristics were included in the study. The California Verbal Learning Test II (CVLT II), Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), Revised Brief Visuospatial Memory Test (BVMT-R), and Trail-Making Test (TMT) were applied to determine all participants' cognitive status. All participants were also administered Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20), Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), Fatigue Impact Scale (FIS) and Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) for quality of life.

RESULTS

Alexithymia levels were higher in the PwMS than in the control group, 24.2% of the PwMS and 4.2% of the control group being alexithymic. The PwMS group exhibited poorer performance on all cognitive tests and in BDI, BAI, FIS and SF-36 scale scores than the control group. No difference was determined between the groups' RMET scores. Depression and anxiety levels increased in line with alexithymia levels in the PwMS group, while RMET scores decreased. No association was determined between alexithymia levels and age, sex, duration of disease, degree of disability, cognition, or fatigue. RMET scores were not affected by age, sex, duration of disease, degree of disability, anxiety, or fatigue, but were lower among individuals with poor cognition and in depressive patients.

CONCLUSION

Neuropsychiatric symptoms have been the subject of considerable research in MS in recent years and these clinical characteristics in patients have begun being closely monitored. PwMS are capable of experiencing difficulty in identifying emotions in themselves and others, and their social lives can be affected. In addition, the fact that this exhibits an association with cognition based on RMET is particularly noteworthy.

The Prevalence and Characteristics of Alexithymia in Adults Following Brain Injury: A Meta-Analysis

Alexithymia is the inability to identify and describe one's own emotions. Some research suggests that organic alexithymia may occur after acquired brain injury (ABI). However, the results in the literature are inconsistent, when comparisons are made against healthy controls. Furthermore, a precise estimate of alexithymia prevalence in the ABI population has not yet been reported. Consequently, this meta-analysis aimed to estimate the prevalence and characteristics of alexithymia in ABI, as measured by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20). Based on 22 unique ABI samples, a series of random-effects meta-analyses estimated moderate to large positive effect sizes (i.e., greater alexithymia in ABI samples) for the TAS-20 total scale (Hedges' g = 1.00, 95% CI [0.75, 1.35]), as well as the subscales: difficulty identifying feelings (Hedges' g = 0.92, 95% CI [0.66, 1.17]), difficulty describing feelings (Hedges' g = 0.69, 95% CI [0.50, 0.87]) and externally oriented thinking (Hedges' g = 0.75, 95% CI [0.64, 0.85]). Furthermore, a meta-regression identified a larger effect size (TAS-20 total scale score) for traumatic brain injury (TBI) samples, in comparison to non-TBI samples. Finally, the prevalence of clinically significant levels of alexithymia (TAS-20 total scale ≥ 68.4; i.e., two SDs above the general population mean) in ABI patients was estimated at 15.2%. We interpreted the results to suggest that ABI may have a substantial negative impact on affective processing abilities and, thus, comprehensive assessment of emotional functioning deficits following ABI should be considered by practitioners.