An investigation of facial emotion recognition impairments in alexithymia and its neural correlates

Jongen, Sebastian; Axmacher, Nikolai; Kremers, Nico A.W.; Hoffmann, Holger; Limbrecht-Ecklundt, Kerstin; Traue, Harald C.; Kessler, Henrik

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2014.05.069

Cited by 48 publications

(54 citation statements)

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“…From this, we hypothesize that difficulties in the perception and interpretation of emotional facial expressions represent an important characteristic of alexithymia, especially in females. This has been demonstrated by a number of studies also including a recent fMRI study which related the neuropsychological dysfunction to altered, mostly decreased patterns of activation [Jongen et al, ]. However, to our best knowledge only Dittrich et al [] so far have addressed putative gender differences in facial emotion perception in alexithymia.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alexithymia and brain gray matter volumes in a general population sample

et al. 2014

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Alexithymia is perceived as a personality construct involving deficits in the cognitive processing of emotion. Brain areas that process emotions might be structurally altered in affected people. Subjects from the Study of Health in Pomerania who underwent whole body magnetic resonance imaging were investigated. After quality control procedures 2,589 subjects with Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20 (TAS-20) data and interview-based information on major depressive disorder (MDD) were available. After exclusion of study participants who were older than 65 years or had MDD in their lifetime, 1,685 subjects were included in the voxel-based morphometric (VBM 8) analyses. In whole-brain analyses, the TAS-20 total score was associated with less gray matter (GM) volumes of the bilateral dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). The TAS-20 factor scale difficulty identifying feelings (DIF) was associated with less GM volume in three clusters: dACC, left middle and inferior temporal gyrus, left fusiform gyrus and cerebellum. The lower GM volume in the left fusiform gyrus was specific for females. Absolute GM volume analyses also revealed associations between the factor scales difficulty describing feelings, external orientated thinking and the dACC. Adjustment for current symptoms of anxiety and depression did not change the effects sizes substantially. In conclusion, lower GM volume in the dACC represents the major structural correlate of alexithymia. Associations with DIF suggest a prominent involvement of left temporal areas. These areas represent language and semantic processing and might be involved in the cognitive processing of emotions and the conscious identification of feelings.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alexithymia and brain gray matter volumes in a general population sample

et al. 2014

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“…In the general population, levels of alexithymia are inversely related to empathy; in addition alexithymic individuals perceive others to be in less pain, report lower scores on empathy questionnaires, and demonstrate atypical neural responses to others' pain compared to non-alexithymic people (Grynberg et al, 2010;Guttman & Laporte, 2002;Moriguchi et al, 2007). Alexithymic individuals also perform worse than typical individuals on tasks requiring the recognition of emotion from faces (Grynberg et al, 2012;Jongen et al, 2014) and voices (Heaton et al, 2012), and alexithymia, rather than autistic traits, accounts for the difficulties in facial and vocal emotion recognition in the autistic population (Cook, Brewer, Shah, & Bird, 2013;Heaton et al, 2012). Such deficits would likely lead to a reduced ability to interpret accurately, and presumably a reduced propensity to comment upon, others' emotions (Coll et al, 2017).…”

Section: Alexithymia and The Social Affect Ados Subscalementioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of alexithymia on autism diagnostic assessments

Hobson¹,

Westwood²,

Conway³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Alexithymia, a difficulty identifying and communicating one’s own emotions, affects socio-emotional processes, such as emotion recognition and empathy. Co-occurring alexithymia is prevalent in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and underlies some socio-emotional difficulties previously attributed to autism. Socio-emotional abilities are examined during behavioural diagnostic assessments of autism, yet the effect of alexithymia on these assessments is not known. In this study, two previously collected samples of Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) assessments were used to examine the relationship between alexithymia and ADOS score. Participants included 96 women with anorexia, and 147 adolescents who were either high in autistic symptoms, or whose twin had high autistic symptoms. We examined 1) the impact of alexithymia on meeting the criteria for autism/ASD, 2) correlations between alexithymia and ADOS subscales, and 3) whether alexithymia predicted scores on specific ADOS items, selected a priori based on the literature. In the adolescent group, parent-reported (but not self-reported) alexithymia predicted autism/ASD diagnosis, correlated with both sub-scales, and predicted scores on ADOS items. Fewer associations were observed in the anorexic sample, but the presence of alexithymia predicted a near fourfold increase in the likelihood of meeting diagnostic criteria for autism/ASD in this sample.

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“…Importantly, people with high levels of alexithymia exhibit difficulties not only in processing their own emotions, but also in processing the emotions expressed by others ( Borhani, Borgomaneri, Làdavas, & Bertini, 2016 ; Jessimer & Markham, 1997 ; Parker et al, 1993 ; Parker, Prkachin, & Prkachin, 2005 ; Scarpazza, Di Pellegrino, & Làdavas, 2014 ; Sifneos, 1973 ). Thus, alexithymic individuals show altered recognition of emotional stimuli ( Grynberg et al, 2012 , Ihme et al, 2014 ) and decreased activation of the amygdala during presentation of emotional stimuli ( Jongen et al, 2014 ; Moriguchi & Komaki, 2013 ), and particularly negative stimuli ( Kugel et al, 2008 ; Pouga, Berthoz, de Gelder, & Grezes, 2010 ; Reker et al, 2010 ; for a recent metaanalysis: van der Velde et al, 2013 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%