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Koppelberg P, Kersting A, Suslow T. Alexithymia and interpersonal problems in healthy young individuals. BMC Psychiatry 2023; 23:688. [PMID: 37735376 PMCID: PMC10515237 DOI: 10.1186/s12888-023-05191-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2023] [Accepted: 09/13/2023] [Indexed: 09/23/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Alexithymia refers to a multidimensional personality trait with the facets difficulties identifying feelings (DIF), difficulties describing feelings (DDF), and externally orientated thinking (EOT). Alexithymia is a risk factor for mental and somatic disorders. Previous research with patients suffering from various disorders showed positive relationships between alexithymia and interpersonal problems. Only one study analyzed the link between alexithymic features and interpersonal difficulties in healthy individuals but yielded inconclusive findings because participants' negative affects were not controlled. A widely accepted conceptualization of interpersonal problems relies on the interpersonal circumplex, which is defined by two orthogonal dimensions, agency and communion. In the present study, we analyzed which facets of alexithymia are associated with the two interpersonal problem dimensions and the global severity of interpersonal distress, after adjusting for negative affect. METHODS Two-hundred healthy young individuals (100 women) participated in the study. Alexithymic features were assessed using the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Interpersonal problems were measured with the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP-D). Participants' state and trait anxiety, depressive symptoms, and verbal intelligence were also assessed. RESULTS All alexithymia scales were positively correlated with general interpersonal distress. Regression results suggested that the TAS-20 subscale DIF was the primary predictor of general interpersonal distress after controlling for negative affectivity. The scale DDF correlated negatively with the IIP-D dimension agency. According to our regression analysis, DDF was a predictor of (low) agency controlling for negative affects. Moreover, DDF correlated negatively with the IIP-D dimension communion. Our regression results indicate that DDF was a predictor of (low) communion independent of negative affect. Correlations between alexithymia facets and IIP-D subscales did not differ between genders. CONCLUSIONS Difficulties identifying feelings seem to be linked to a high level of general interpersonal distress. Difficulties in recognizing one's feelings may disrupt emotion regulation, which could heighten the general risk of interpersonal problems. Difficulties describing feelings could be a central factor contributing to interpersonal problems related to low communion as well as low agency, since emotion expression and communication are crucial in establishing experiences of social closeness and directing other people's behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pauline Koppelberg
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Semmelweisstr, 10, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Anette Kersting
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Semmelweisstr, 10, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Thomas Suslow
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Semmelweisstr, 10, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
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Lee SH, Lee KT. The impact of pandemic-related stress on attentional bias and anxiety in alexithymia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sci Rep 2023; 13:6327. [PMID: 37072486 PMCID: PMC10112327 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-33326-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2022] [Accepted: 04/11/2023] [Indexed: 05/03/2023] Open
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic had negative consequences for mental health, yet it is unknown how and to what extent the psychological outcomes of this stressful event are moderated by individual traits. Alexithymia is a risk factor for psychopathology, and thus likely predicted individual differences in resilience or vulnerability to stressful events during the pandemic. This study explored the moderating role of alexithymia in the relationships of pandemic-related stress with anxiety levels and attentional bias. The participants were 103 Taiwanese individuals who completed a survey during the outbreak of the Omicron wave. Additionally, an emotional Stroop task including pandemic-related or neutral stimuli was used to measure attentional bias. Our results demonstrate that pandemic-related stress had a lesser impact on anxiety in individuals with a higher level of alexithymia. Moreover, we found that in individuals with higher exposure to pandemic-related stressors, a higher level of alexithymia indicated less attentional bias toward COVID-19-related information. Thus, it is plausible that individuals with alexithymia tended to avoid pandemic-related information, which could temporarily relieve stressors during the pandemic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shu-Hui Lee
- Center for General Education, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
- Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
| | - Kuan-Te Lee
- Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
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Lee SH, Lee KT. Attentional Processing of Unpleasant Stimuli in Alexithymia. Psychol Rep 2022:332941221146917. [PMID: 36527407 DOI: 10.1177/00332941221146917] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/17/2024]
Abstract
Alexithymia is a multi-faceted personality trait defined by difficulties in identifying and describing emotions and is considered a risk factor for multiple psychiatric disorders. Current alexithymia research debates the type of attention bias involved in the processing of negative emotional information, especially in anxiety-evoking situations that are frequently associated with stress states. Relatedly, this study aims to examine the role of emotional influence on the attentional processing of Taiwanese alexithymic individuals. Using the Chinese version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20), individuals with high alexithymia (HA: TAS > 60, n = 26; Mage = 23.36) and individuals with low alexithymia (LA: TAS < 39, n = 26; Mage = 25.76) were recruited. Participants performed an emotional counting Stroop task preceded by anxiety-evoking (threatening and aversive pictures) or neutral pictures. Reaction times (RTs) of the emotional Stroop task were compared between HA and LA groups. Our results demonstrate that compared to individuals with LA, individuals with HA show early avoidance tendency (i.e., allocate less attentional resources to anxiety-evoking stimuli), and that negative affect therefore does not interfere with subsequent attention processing during the Stroop task, resulting in faster RT for unpleasant stimuli (Mthreatening = 683.87, Maversive = 685.87) than neutral stimuli (Mneutral = 695.64) (ps < .05). In addition, the attentional bias toward specific types of negative emotion was not differentiated in individuals with HA (p < .05), suggesting that alexithymic individuals' emotion schemas may be underdeveloped in terms of ability to specify exact emotions. This study provides evidence regarding early sensitization to negative stimuli during information processing, consistent with the notion that alexithymia is related to avoidant emotion regulation processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shu-Hui Lee
- Center for General Education, 34881National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Kuan-Te Lee
- Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, 34881National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
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Suslow T, Kersting A. Beyond Face and Voice: A Review of Alexithymia and Emotion Perception in Music, Odor, Taste, and Touch. Front Psychol 2021; 12:707599. [PMID: 34393944 PMCID: PMC8362879 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.707599] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2021] [Accepted: 07/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Alexithymia is a clinically relevant personality trait characterized by deficits in recognizing and verbalizing one's emotions. It has been shown that alexithymia is related to an impaired perception of external emotional stimuli, but previous research focused on emotion perception from faces and voices. Since sensory modalities represent rather distinct input channels it is important to know whether alexithymia also affects emotion perception in other modalities and expressive domains. The objective of our review was to summarize and systematically assess the literature on the impact of alexithymia on the perception of emotional (or hedonic) stimuli in music, odor, taste, and touch. Eleven relevant studies were identified. On the basis of the reviewed research, it can be preliminary concluded that alexithymia might be associated with deficits in the perception of primarily negative but also positive emotions in music and a reduced perception of aversive taste. The data available on olfaction and touch are inconsistent or ambiguous and do not allow to draw conclusions. Future investigations would benefit from a multimethod assessment of alexithymia and control of negative affect. Multimodal research seems necessary to advance our understanding of emotion perception deficits in alexithymia and clarify the contribution of modality-specific and supramodal processing impairments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Suslow
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Anette Kersting
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany
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Suslow T, Günther V, Hensch T, Kersting A, Bodenschatz CM. Alexithymia Is Associated With Deficits in Visual Search for Emotional Faces in Clinical Depression. Front Psychiatry 2021; 12:668019. [PMID: 34267686 PMCID: PMC8275928 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.668019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2021] [Accepted: 06/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: The concept of alexithymia is characterized by difficulties identifying and describing one's emotions. Alexithymic individuals are impaired in the recognition of others' emotional facial expressions. Alexithymia is quite common in patients suffering from major depressive disorder. The face-in-the-crowd task is a visual search paradigm that assesses processing of multiple facial emotions. In the present eye-tracking study, the relationship between alexithymia and visual processing of facial emotions was examined in clinical depression. Materials and Methods: Gaze behavior and manual response times of 20 alexithymic and 19 non-alexithymic depressed patients were compared in a face-in-the-crowd task. Alexithymia was empirically measured via the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia-Scale. Angry, happy, and neutral facial expressions of different individuals were shown as target and distractor stimuli. Our analyses of gaze behavior focused on latency to the target face, number of distractor faces fixated before fixating the target, number of target fixations, and number of distractor faces fixated after fixating the target. Results: Alexithymic patients exhibited in general slower decision latencies compared to non-alexithymic patients in the face-in-the-crowd task. Patient groups did not differ in latency to target, number of target fixations, and number of distractors fixated prior to target fixation. However, after having looked at the target, alexithymic patients fixated more distractors than non-alexithymic patients, regardless of expression condition. Discussion: According to our results, alexithymia goes along with impairments in visual processing of multiple facial emotions in clinical depression. Alexithymia appears to be associated with delayed manual reaction times and prolonged scanning after the first target fixation in depression, but it might have no impact on the early search phase. The observed deficits could indicate difficulties in target identification and/or decision-making when processing multiple emotional facial expressions. Impairments of alexithymic depressed patients in processing emotions in crowds of faces seem not limited to a specific affective valence. In group situations, alexithymic depressed patients might be slowed in processing interindividual differences in emotional expressions compared with non-alexithymic depressed patients. This could represent a disadvantage in understanding non-verbal communication in groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Suslow
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Vivien Günther
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Tilman Hensch
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Psychology, IU International University of Applied Science, Erfurt, Germany
| | - Anette Kersting
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Charlott Maria Bodenschatz
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany
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Rosenberg N, Ihme K, Lichev V, Sacher J, Rufer M, Grabe HJ, Kugel H, Pampel A, Lepsien J, Kersting A, Villringer A, Suslow T. Alexithymia and automatic processing of facial emotions: behavioral and neural findings. BMC Neurosci 2020; 21:23. [PMID: 32471365 PMCID: PMC7257227 DOI: 10.1186/s12868-020-00572-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2018] [Accepted: 05/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Alexithymia is a personality trait characterized by difficulties identifying and describing feelings, an externally oriented style of thinking, and a reduced inclination to imagination. Previous research has shown deficits in the recognition of emotional facial expressions in alexithymia and reductions of brain responsivity to emotional stimuli. Using an affective priming paradigm, we investigated automatic perception of facial emotions as a function of alexithymia at the behavioral and neural level. In addition to self-report scales, we applied an interview to assess alexithymic tendencies. RESULTS During 3 T fMRI scanning, 49 healthy individuals judged valence of neutral faces preceded by briefly shown happy, angry, fearful, and neutral facial expressions. Alexithymia was assessed using the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire (BVAQ) and the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia (TSIA). As expected, only negative correlations were found between alexithymic features and affective priming. The global level of self-reported alexithymia (as assessed by the TAS-20 and the BVAQ) was found to be related to less affective priming owing to angry faces. At the facet level, difficulties identifying feelings, difficulties analyzing feelings, and impoverished fantasy (as measured by the BVAQ) were correlated with reduced affective priming due to angry faces. Difficulties identifying feelings (BVAQ) correlated also with reduced affective priming due to fearful faces and reduced imagination (TSIA) was related to decreased affective priming due to happy faces. There was only one significant correlation between alexithymia dimensions and automatic brain response to masked facial emotions: TAS-20 alexithymia correlated with heightened brain response to masked happy faces in superior and medial frontal areas. CONCLUSIONS Our behavioral results provide evidence that alexithymic features are related in particular to less sensitivity for covert facial expressions of anger. The perceptual alterations could reflect impaired automatic recognition or integration of social anger signals into judgemental processes and might contribute to the problems in interpersonal relationships associated with alexithymia. Our findings suggest that self-report measures of alexithymia may have an advantage over interview-based tests as research tools in the field of emotion perception at least in samples of healthy individuals characterized by rather low levels of alexithymia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole Rosenberg
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Semmelweisstrasse 10, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Klas Ihme
- Institute of Transportation Systems, German Aerospace Center, Lilienthalplatz 7, 38108 Brunswick, Germany
| | - Vladimir Lichev
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Semmelweisstrasse 10, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Julia Sacher
- Department of Neurology, Max-Planck-Institute of Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstraße 1, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Clinic of Cognitive Neurology, University of Leipzig, Liebigstrasse 18, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Michael Rufer
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Militärstrasse 8, 8021 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Hans Jörgen Grabe
- Department of Psychiatry, University Medicine of Greifswald, Ellernholzstraße 1-2, 17475 Greifswald, Germany
| | - Harald Kugel
- Department of Clinical Radiology, University of Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Campus 1, 48149 Münster, Germany
| | - André Pampel
- Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Unit, Max-Planck-Institute of Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstraße 1, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Jöran Lepsien
- Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Unit, Max-Planck-Institute of Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstraße 1, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Anette Kersting
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Semmelweisstrasse 10, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Arno Villringer
- Department of Neurology, Max-Planck-Institute of Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstraße 1, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Clinic of Cognitive Neurology, University of Leipzig, Liebigstrasse 18, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Thomas Suslow
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Semmelweisstrasse 10, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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Yao Z, Xuan Y, Zhu X. Effect of experience information on emotional word processing in alexithymia. J Affect Disord 2019; 259:251-258. [PMID: 31446387 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2019.08.068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2019] [Revised: 08/16/2019] [Accepted: 08/19/2019] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Alexithymia is an at-risk personality trait that is associated with deficits in processing emotional words. However, little is known about whether the effect of emotional valence (neutral, positive, and negative) on word processing in alexithymia is related to individual differences in sensorimotor or affective information processing that is associated with alexithymia and experience information (sensorimotor vs. affective) that is denoted by words. METHODS The present study performed two experiments to explore this issue. In Experiment 1, we orthogonally manipulated experience information that was denoted by neutral words. In Experiment 2, we orthogonally manipulated experience information that was denoted by valenced words (i.e., positive and negative). We asked two groups of healthy individuals with high scores (high alexithymic [HA] group) or low scores (low alexithymic [LA] group) on the 20-item Toronto-Alexithymia-Scale to complete a lexical decision task. RESULTS The results showed that emotional word processing in the HA group was modulated by a joint effect of valence and experience information, indicating that selective deficits in the processing of neutral and negative words were loaded more by sensorimotor information and that selective deficits in the processing of positive words were loaded more by affective experience compared with the LA group. CONCLUSION These findings shed a new light on emotional word processing in alexithymia and suggest that alexithymic deficits in the processing of emotional words should not be considered as being simply related to general or specific valence but rather related to experience information that is denoted by the meanings of words.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhao Yao
- School of Humanities, Xidian University, Xi'an 710126, China.
| | - Yang Xuan
- School of Humanities, Xidian University, Xi'an 710126, China
| | - Xiangru Zhu
- Institute of Cognition, Brain and Health, Henan University, Kaifeng, 475004, China; Institute of Psychology and Behavior, Henan University, Kaifeng, 475004, China.
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Fournier A, Luminet O, Dambrun M, Dutheil F, Pellissier S, Mondillon L. Importance of considering interoceptive abilities in alexithymia assessment. PeerJ 2019; 7:e7615. [PMID: 31768300 PMCID: PMC6874858 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.7615] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2019] [Accepted: 08/05/2019] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Recent studies have shown that people with high alexithymia scores have decreased interoceptive abilities, which can be associated with psychological and physical disorders. Early assessments of the alexithymia trait included the evaluation of these abilities through the dimension measuring the difficulty in identifying and distinguishing between feelings and bodily sensations (the 26-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale; TAS-26). The revised version of the TAS, the TAS-20, contains a three-factor solution that does not involve a dimension assessing interoceptive abilities. However, the three items allowing the evaluation of these abilities are still present in the TAS-20. In this context, we hypothesized that the 3 items which assess interoceptive abilities in the TAS-20 should constitute an independent factor. In addition to exploring the internal structure of the TAS-20, we examined its external validity by assessing the relationships between the new factors and self-reported measures of personality trait and psychological and physical health. METHOD Two online studies (N = 253 and N = 287) were performed. The participants completed the TAS-20 and a set of psychological questionnaires (e.g., anxiety, depression) and health questions (e.g., "Do you suffer from a somatic disorder?"). The structure of the TAS-20 was examined using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), followed by an investigation of the relationships between the resulting new factors and other psychological and health data using regressions. In both studies, EFA revealed a new structure of the questionnaire consisting of four dimensions: (1) difficulty in the awareness of feelings, (2) externally oriented thinking, (3) difficulty in interoceptive abilities, and (4) poor affective sharing. The first factor was positively associated with all self-reported psychological and personality trait measures while the third factor was associated more with somatic disorders and medication intake. RESULTS Our results suggest the presence of a new latent factor in the assessment of alexithymia that reflects interoceptive abilities specifically related to health and personality trait outcomes. In accordance with the results and the literature, it seems important to include an assessment of interoceptive abilities when considering the evaluation of alexithymia. The next step would be to develop a valid measure of these abilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alicia Fournier
- Laboratory Psy-DREPI, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France
- Behaviors, Risk and Health, CNRS, MSHE Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Besançon, France
| | - Olivier Luminet
- Research Institute for Psychological Sciences, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium
- Belgium Fund for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Michael Dambrun
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale et Cognitive (LAPSCO), CNRS UMR 6024, Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France
| | - Frédéric Dutheil
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale et Cognitive (LAPSCO), CNRS UMR 6024, Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France
- Preventive and Occupational Medicine, University Hospital of Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand, France
- Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Sonia Pellissier
- Laboratoire Inter-Universitaire de Psychologie, Personnalité, Cognition et Changement Social (LIP/PC2S), Université Savoie Mont Blanc, Chambéry, France
| | - Laurie Mondillon
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale et Cognitive (LAPSCO), CNRS UMR 6024, Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France
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Abstract
Alexithymia is a deficit in the recognition, expression and regulation of emotions, which has the following features: difficulty in identifying or describing feelings, difficulty distinguishing between feelings and bodily sensations, stringent imaginal processes, and externally oriented cognitive style. This personality trait is associated with many psychiatric and psychosomatic disorders, as well as with risky behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Antônio Jaeger
- Department of Psychology, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil.,Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia sobre Comportamento, Cognição e Ensino, São Carlos, SP, Brazil
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Cecchetto C, Rumiati RI, Aiello M. Alexithymia and emotional reactions to odors. Sci Rep 2017; 7:14097. [PMID: 29074970 PMCID: PMC5658372 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-14404-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2017] [Accepted: 10/02/2017] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Alexithymia is a psychological construct characterized by deficits in processing emotional stimuli. However, little is known about the processing of odours in alexithymia, even though there is extensive proof that emotion and olfaction are closely linked. The present study is aimed at investigating how alexithymic individuals process emotions conveyed by odors. Emotional responses to unpleasant, neutral odors and clean air were collected through self-report ratings and psychophysiological measures in a sample of 62 healthy participants with high (HA), medium (MA) and low (LA) levels of alexithymia. Moreover, participants performed tests on odors identification and threshold and completed questionnaires assessing olfactory imagery and awareness. Two main results have been found: first, HA and MA groups showed altered physiological responses to odors, compared to LA, while no differences among the groups were observed in odor ratings; and second, affective and cognitive alexithymia components were differently associated with the performance on olfactory tests, skin conductance response to odors, reaction times in the rating task, and scores on olfactory questionnaires. We conclude that alexithymia is characterized by altered physiological reactions to olfactory stimuli; moreover, we stress the importance of evaluating the different alexithymia components since they affect emotional stimuli processing in different ways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cinzia Cecchetto
- SISSA - International School for Advanced Studies, Neuroscience Area, Via Bonomea, 265, 34136, Trieste, Italy.
- Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
- BioTechMed, Graz, Austria.
| | - Raffaella Ida Rumiati
- SISSA - International School for Advanced Studies, Neuroscience Area, Via Bonomea, 265, 34136, Trieste, Italy
- ANVUR - Agenzia Nazionale della Valutazione del Sistema Universitario e della Ricerca, Via Ippolito Nievo, 35 - 00153, Roma, Italy
| | - Marilena Aiello
- SISSA - International School for Advanced Studies, Neuroscience Area, Via Bonomea, 265, 34136, Trieste, Italy
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Suslow T, Donges US. Alexithymia Components Are Differentially Related to Explicit Negative Affect But Not Associated with Explicit Positive Affect or Implicit Affectivity. Front Psychol 2017; 8:1758. [PMID: 29062297 PMCID: PMC5640715 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01758] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2017] [Accepted: 09/22/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Alexithymia represents a multifaceted personality construct defined by difficulties in recognizing and verbalizing emotions and externally oriented thinking. According to clinical observations, experience of negative affects is exacerbated and experience of positive affects is decreased in alexithymia. Findings from research based on self-report indicate that all alexithymia facets are negatively associated with the experience of positive affects, whereas difficulties identifying and describing feelings are related to heightened negative affect. Implicit affectivity, which can be measured using indirect assessment methods, relates to processes of the impulsive system. The aim of the present study was to examine, for the first time, the relations between alexithymia components and implicit and explicit positive and negative affectivity in healthy adults. The 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) were administered to two hundred and forty-one healthy individuals along with measures of depression and trait anxiety. Difficulties identifying feelings were correlated with explicit negative trait affect, depressive mood and trait anxiety. Difficulties describing feelings showed smaller but also significant correlations with depressive mood and trait anxiety but were not correlated with explicit state or trait affect as assessed by the PANAS. Externally oriented thinking was not significantly correlated with any of the implicit and explicit affect measures. According to our findings, an externally oriented, concrete way of thinking appears to be generally unrelated to dispositions to develop positive or negative affects. Difficulties identifying feelings seem to be associated with increased conscious negative affects but not with a heightened disposition to develop negative affects at an automatic response level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Suslow
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Uta-Susan Donges
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Martin Gropius Krankenhaus, Eberswalde, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Campus Charité Mitte - Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany
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12
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Donges US, Suslow T. Alexithymia and automatic processing of emotional stimuli: a systematic review. Rev Neurosci 2017; 28:247-264. [DOI: 10.1515/revneuro-2016-0049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2016] [Accepted: 11/19/2016] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
AbstractAlexithymia is a personality trait characterized by difficulties in recognizing and verbalizing emotions and the utilization of a cognitive style that is oriented toward external events, rather than intrapsychic experiences. Alexithymia is considered a vulnerability factor influencing onset and course of many psychiatric disorders. Even though emotions are, in general, elicited involuntarily and emerge without conscious effort, it is surprising that little attention in etiological considerations concerning alexithymia has been given to deficits in automatic emotion processing and their neurobiological bases. In this article, results from studies using behavioral or neurobiological research methods were systematically reviewed in which automatic processing of external emotional information was investigated as a function of alexithymia in healthy individuals. Twenty-two studies were identified through a literature search of Psycinfo, PubMed, and Web of Science databases from 1990 to 2016. The review reveals deficits in the automatic processing of emotional stimuli in alexithymia at a behavioral and neurobiological level. The vast majority of the reviewed studies examined visual processing. The alexithymia facets externally oriented thinking and difficulties identifying feelings were found to be related to impairments in the automatic processing of threat-related facial expressions. Alexithymic individuals manifest low reactivity to barely visible negative emotional stimuli in brain regions responsible for appraisal, encoding, and affective response, e.g. amygdala, occipitotemporal areas, and insula. Against this background, it appears plausible to assume that deficits in automatic emotion processing could be factors contributing to alexithymic personality characteristics. Directions for future research on alexithymia and automatic emotion perception are suggested.
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Affiliation(s)
- Uta-Susan Donges
- 1Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, University of Leipzig, Semmelweisstr 10, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
- 2Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Addiction Medicine, Martin Gropius Krankenhaus, Oderberger Straße 8, D-16225 Eberswalde, Germany
| | - Thomas Suslow
- 3Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, University of Leipzig, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
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