Quadratic Relationship Between Alexithymia and Interoceptive Accuracy, and Results From a Pilot Mindfulness Intervention

A short mindfulness induction might increase women's mental rotation performance

The study aimed to investigate the effects of an embodied mindfulness treatment on chronometric mental rotation. Forty-four women and 47 men participated and were randomly divided into two groups: a mindfulness induction group and a control group. They completed two sets of 150 mental rotation tasks with cube figures each. Subjective cognitive effort (measured after each block), reaction time, and accuracy were analyzed using linear mixed models with the factors of time, mindfulness, angular disparity, and gender. The significant finding was a three-way interaction between pre-post testing, mindfulness, and gender for reaction times. This interaction suggests that women might benefit more from the mindfulness induction, while men may benefit more from the control condition. The analysis of subjective cognitive effort indicates that women and men perceive the same cognitive effort when solving cube-figure tasks.

A systematic review of parental burnout and related factors among parents

BACKGROUND

Parenting is both a complex and stressful endeavor, so parents sometimes experience parenting burnout. The main objective of this study was to provide an overview of factors related to general parental burnout (PB) among parents with at least one child based on the Ecological Systems Theory (EST).

METHODS

PubMed, Web of Science, EBSCO, CNKI and WanFang were systematically searched for studies published from 2010 to July 2023 for peer-reviewed articles using keywords extracted from Medical Subject Headings such as "parenting", "parental", "burnout", "psychological burnout", "burn-out syndrome". Studies were included if they described associations between factors and PB among parents of children aged 0-18 years old in the general population, and published in an English or Chinese language peer-reviewed journal. The Quality Assessment Tool for Studies with Diverse Designs (QATSDD) was employed to assess the risk of bias of included studies.

RESULTS

Of 2037 articles, 26 articles met the inclusion criteria. Based on the Ecological Systems Theory (EST), we found that microsystem-individual factors such as gender, educational level, income, parental personality, internalization of maternal parental motivation, unmitigated communion, self-compassion and concern for others, alexithymia, anxiety and depressive symptoms, parental perfectionism, resilience, low self-esteem and high need for control, mother's attachment style were identified as being associated with parenting burnout. Mesosystem-interpersonal factors involve parent-child relationship and marital satisfaction. The exosystem-organizational or community factors include the number of children in the household, neighborhood and the number of hours spent with children, child's illness, child's behavior problems and social support. The macrosystem-society/policy or culture factors are mainly personal values and cultural values.

CONCLUSIONS

This systematic review found several factors that have been investigated in relation to PB. However, the majority of the factors were reported by one or two studies often implementing a cross-sectional design. Nevertheless, we still recommend that health policymakers and administrators relieve parenting burnout among parents with children by adjusting these modifiable factors.

Assessment of the mind-body connection: preliminary psychometric evidence for a new self-report questionnaire

OBJECTIVES

While interoceptive self-report scales provide a foundation for measuring the mind-body connection, they variably consider other important factors that could influence interpretations of internal bodily sensations and perceptions related to mind-body integration. The proposed Body-Mind Connection Questionnaire (BMCQ) aimed to operationalise the notion that this construct involves three major components: (a) Interoceptive Attention, (b) Sensation-Emotion Articulation, and (c) Body-Mind Values.

METHODS

Following panel review and piloting with the target population, the developed BMCQ was evaluated in 316 participants (189 identifying as female) aged 18-50 (MAge=30.78), alongside established self-report measures of interoceptive sensibility, body awareness, sensory processing sensitivity, and alexithymia. We examined the BMCQ factor structure through exploratory factor analysis and analysed convergent and discriminant validity.

RESULTS

Exploratory factor analysis supported three scales of the BMCQ, which explained 54.03% of variance. Factor loadings (>0.44) and reliability indices (0.74 to 0.85) were acceptable. Inter-scale correlations suggested that the scales are distinct but related (rs=0.38 to 0.59). BMCQ scales were supported by convergent (r=0.33 to 0.67) and discriminant evidence (rs=0.01 to 0.39, p range n.s. to <.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Preliminary psychometric properties indicate that the BMCQ is multidimensional and consists of three constructs that differentially relate to theoretically associated measures. Interoceptive Attention, Sensation-Emotion Articulation, and Body-Mind Values may serve as a basis for efficiently assessing the mind-body connection more holistically, which could be useful for developing interventions aimed at enhancing mind-body integration.

Insular dysfunction of interoception in major depressive disorder: from the perspective of neuroimaging

Interoception plays a crucial role in maintaining bodily homeostasis and promoting survival, and is considered the basis of human emotion, cognition, and self-formation. A malfunction of interoception is increasingly suggested to be a fundamental component of different mental health conditions, and depressive disorders have been especially closely associated. Interoceptive signaling and processing depends on a system called the "interoceptive pathway," with the insula, located in the deep part of the lateral fissure, being the most important brain structure in this pathway. Neuroimaging studies have revealed alterations in the structure and function of the insula in a large number of individuals with depression, yet the precise relationship between these alterations and interoceptive dysfunction remains unclear. The goal of this review is to examine the evidence that exists for dysfunction of interoception in people with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), and to determine the associated specific alterations in the structure and function of the insula revealed by neuroimaging. Overall, three aspects of the potential relationship between interoceptive dysfunction and alterations in insular function in people with depression have been assessed, namely clinical symptoms, quantitative measures of interoceptive function and ability, and interoceptive modulation. To conclude, several specific limitations of the published studies and important lines of enquiry for future research are offered.

The mediating role of perceived social support: alexithymia and parental burnout in parents of children with autism spectrum disorder

Background

Parental burnout is a concept that reflects the emotional exhaustion and emotional distance of parents from children due to their inability to cope with the pressure of parenting. It has been confirmed that parents of autistic children are at higher risk for parental burnout. Additional research has suggested a relationship between parental burnout and parents' personality traits. However, the relationship between alexithymia, an independent personality factor, with parental burnout is little to none.

Objective

To look into the connection between parental burnout and alexithymia among parents of autistic children.

Method

Three hundred and one parents were approached for recruitment and data were collected from 203 parents through a cross-sectional survey assessing parental burnout, alexithymia status, and perceived social support. Because the data is not normally distributed, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient rho(p) was used to assess the correlation between the variables; and then using AMOS to analyze the mediating effects of perceived social support and the moderating effect of gender.

Result

The result showed that (1) There is a negative association between alexithymia with parental burnout (β = 0.6, p < 0.01), while perceive social support was the negative predictor of alexithymia (β = -0.45, p < 0.01) and parental burnout (β = -0.26, p < 0.01); (2) perceive social support partially mediated the relationship between alexithymia and parental burnout of parents of autistic children, which can explain 16.3% of the total effect; (3) Gender plays a moderating role in the first half of the indirect effect of alexithymia on parental burnout, as evidenced by the significant difference in path coefficients between the male and female models (male: β = -0.10, p < 0.05; female: β = -0.60, p < 0.05).

Conclusion

Health professionals and policymakers should be aware of parental burnout among parents of autistic children in China and take early intervention steps. Furthermore, they should recognize the negative impact of alexithymia and the positive impact of social support when developing plans to alleviate parental burnout in children with autism, with a particular focus on mothers with alexithymia, who are more likely to experience low social support and burnout than fathers with alexithymia.

Interoceptive pathways to understand and treat mental health conditions

An increasing recognition that brain and body are dynamically coupled has enriched our scientific understanding of mental health conditions. Peripheral signals interact centrally to influence how we think and feel, generating our sense of the internal condition of the body, a process known as interoception. Disruptions to this interoceptive system may contribute to clinical conditions, including anxiety, depression, and psychosis. After reviewing the nature of interoceptive disturbances in mental health conditions, this review focuses on interoceptive pathways of existing and putative mental health treatments. Emerging clinical interventions may target novel peripheral treatment mechanisms. Future treatment development requires forward- and back-translation to uncover and target specific interoceptive processes in mental health to elucidate their efficacy relative to interventions targeting other factors.

Understanding Emotion Regulation and Humor Styles in Individuals with Callous-Unemotional Traits and Alexithymic Traits

Alexithymia is a personality trait which is characterized by impairments in identifying and describing emotions. Both psychopathic and alexithymic personality traits have been associated with impairments in emotion processing. This study aims to clarify the conceptual overlap between psychopathic traits (focusing on callous-unemotional traits) and alexithymic traits, with emotion regulation strategies and humor styles using a community sample. A battery of self-report measures was distributed through an online platform to 538 male and female participants between the ages of 18 to 65. Hierarchal linear regression analyses demonstrated that emotion regulation strategies were the strongest predictors and accounted for the largest variance of callous-unemotional traits and alexithymic traits. More specifically, expressive suppression arose as a positive predictor while cognitive reappraisal arose as a negative predictor for both personality traits. Aggressive humor (maladaptive) arose as a positive predictor while self-defeating humor (maladaptive) and affiliative humor (adaptive) arose as negative predictors for callous-unemotional traits. In contrast, self-defeating humor arose as a positive predictor for alexithymic traits while affiliative humor and self-enhancing humor arose as negative predictors. Findings indicate that there are similarities and differences between these personality traits. The implications regarding tailoring interventions that target specific deficits associated with each personality trait are discussed.

Alcohol use and interoception - A narrative review

Interoception, defined as the ability to perceive and interpret body signals, may play an important role in alcohol use disorder (AUD). Earlier studies suggested an association between interoception impairment and known risk factors for AUD (e.g., alexithymia, emotion dysregulation, impulsivity, pain). Neurobiological studies show that the neurotoxicity of alcohol affects various elements of the interoceptive system (especially the insula) at structural and functional levels, with differential short/long term impacts. Conversely, primary interoceptive impairments may promote alcohol consumption and foster the evolution towards addiction. Despite convincing evidence demonstrating that interoception impairment may be an important contributor to the development and course of AUD, only a few studies directly evaluated interoceptive abilities in AUD. The research shows that interoceptive accuracy, the objective component of interoception, is lower in AUD individuals, and is correlated with craving and emotion dysregulation. Interoceptive sensibility is in turn higher in AUD individuals compared to healthy controls. Moreover, there is evidence that therapy focused on improving the ability to sense signals from the body in addiction treatment is effective. However, important methodological limitations in interoceptive measures persist, and it is therefore necessary to further investigate the associations between interoception and AUD.

Variability in emotion regulation strategy use is negatively associated with depressive symptoms

Variability in the emotion regulation (ER) strategies one uses throughout daily life has been suggested to reflect adaptive ER ability and to act as a protective factor in mental health. Moreover, psychological inflexibility and persistent negative affect (or affective inertia) are key features of depression and other forms of mental illness and are often further exacerbated by rigid or overly passive regulatory behaviours. The current study investigated the hypothesis that ER variability might serve as a protective factor against depressive symptoms and affective inertia. Using experience-sampling (N = 213), we tested whether two indictors of ER variability (between- and within-strategy SDs) were related to depressive symptoms and affective inertia. We found that people with higher between-strategy variability and within-strategy variability (specifically for reappraisal and distraction) reported fewer depressive symptoms. Both within- and between-strategy variability were negatively related to negative affective inertia. Between-strategy variability and negative affective inertia had unique effects on depression, when used as simultaneous predictors. Altogether, this study provides further evidence for the utility of ER as a factor buffering against depressive symptoms and particularly for the use of variable ER strategies.