Perceptive and affective impairments in emotive eye-region processing in alexithymia

Wang, Zhihao; Goerlich, Katharina S.; Xu, Pengfei; Luo, Yuejia; Alemán, André

doi:10.1093/scan/nsac013

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 84 publications

(142 reference statements)

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“…These symptoms spanned across depression, anxiety, and stress, indicating a higher prevalence of co-occurring psychological issues within the alexithymia group. Studies in psychopathology have previously identified impaired emotional processing in the occipital region among individuals with alexithymia ( 62 ), rendering them less responsive to emotions and more prone to employing negative emotion regulation strategies ( 49 ). This may partly explain the elevated incidence of mental health problems among older adults.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between alexithymia, depression, anxiety, and stress in elderly with multiple chronic conditions in China: a network analysis

Shang,

Chen,

Luo

et al. 2023

Front. Psychiatry

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ObjectiveThis study aimed to construct a network structure to investigate the connections between alexithymia, depression, anxiety, and stress in Chinese older adults with multiple chronic conditions (MCC), identifying core and bridge symptoms, and comparing the network structure across different levels of alexithymia.MethodsThis study used a cross-sectional survey design and convenience sampling to recruit participants from six cities in Jiangsu Province. The study assessed the levels of alexithymia, depression, anxiety, and stress in older adults with MCC using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). Network analysis was performed using R language to identify core and bridge symptoms in the network and compare the network structure across different levels of alexithymia.ResultsA total of 662 participants were included in the analysis, including 395 men and 267 women. The mean age was 70.37 ± 6.92 years. The finding revealed that the “Difficulty Identifying Feelings” (DIF) node had the highest strength centrality (strength = 2.49) and predictability (rp = 0.76) in the network. The next highest strength centrality was observed for “Meaningless” (strength = 1.50), “Agitated” (strength = 1.47), “Scared” (strength = 1.42), and “No look forward” (strength = 0.75). They were identified as core symptoms. The bridge strength analysis identified “Panic,” “Scared,” “No wind down,” “No initiative,” and “No positive” as the bridge symptoms. There were notable differences in the overall network structure and specific connections between the groups with and without alexithymia (p < 0.05).Conclusion“DIF” is a core node in the network of older adults with MCC, indicating its significance as a potential target for psychological interventions in clinical practice. Preventing and mitigating bridge symptoms such as “panic,” “Scared,” “No wind down,” “No initiative,” and “No positive” can effectively impede the spread of symptom activation, thereby interrupting or severing the connections among comorbidities in older adults. Additionally, compared to non-alexithymia individuals, the psychological issues of older adults with alexithymia require prioritized intervention from healthcare professionals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between alexithymia, depression, anxiety, and stress in elderly with multiple chronic conditions in China: a network analysis

Shang,

Chen,

Luo

et al. 2023

Front. Psychiatry

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“…The eye avoidance appears not to be linked to impairments in emotion recognition. In a recent electrophysiological study, evidence of abnormalities in eye region processing of emotional expressions was reported in individuals with high levels of alexithymia [66]: alexithymic individuals relied less on perceptual processing of the eye region and exhibited diminished affective encoding for the eye region compared to non-alexithymic individuals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Recognizing and Looking at Masked Emotional Faces in Alexithymia

Fuchs,

Kersting,

Suslow

et al. 2024

Behavioral Sciences

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Alexithymia is a clinically relevant personality construct characterized by difficulties identifying and communicating one’s emotions and externally oriented thinking. Alexithymia has been found to be related to poor emotion decoding and diminished attention to the eyes. The present eye tracking study investigated whether high levels of alexithymia are related to impairments in recognizing emotions in masked faces and reduced attentional preference for the eyes. An emotion recognition task with happy, fearful, disgusted, and neutral faces with face masks was administered to high-alexithymic and non-alexithymic individuals. Hit rates, latencies of correct responses, and fixation duration on eyes and face mask were analyzed as a function of group and sex. Alexithymia had no effects on accuracy and speed of emotion recognition. However, alexithymic men showed less attentional preference for the eyes relative to the mask than non-alexithymic men, which was due to their increased attention to face masks. No fixation duration differences were observed between alexithymic and non-alexithymic women. Our data indicate that high levels of alexithymia might not have adverse effects on the efficiency of emotion recognition from faces wearing masks. Future research on gaze behavior during facial emotion recognition in high alexithymia should consider sex as a moderating variable.

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“… 9 , 10 Individuals with deficits in emotional processing may exhibit poor performance on social cognition tasks because social cognition abilities require people to understand mental states and emotions. 11 Indeed, alexithymia has been found to be linked to impairment in social cognition skills, including the identification of other people’s emotional facial expressions, 12 higher-order mentalizing. 13 A mechanistic cognitive model of self-to-other emotional contagion has been proposed to provide a framework for understanding abnormal emotion processing in alexithymia, psychopathy, and autism.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Alexithymia on Moral Decision-Making in Sacrificial Dilemmas: High Alexithymia is Associated with Weaker Sensitivity to Moral Norms

Wu¹,

Zhan²,

Ding³

et al. 2023

PRBM

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Purpose Although several studies have investigated the association between alexithymia and moral decision-making in sacrificial dilemmas, the evidence remains mixed. The current work investigated this association and how alexithymia affects moral choice in such dilemmas. Methods The current research used a multinomial model (ie, CNI model) to disentangle (a) sensitivity to consequences, (b) sensitivity to moral norms, and (c) general preference for inaction versus action irrespective of consequences and norms in responses to moral dilemmas. Results Higher levels of alexithymia were associated with a greater preference for utilitarian judgments in sacrificial dilemmas (Study 1). Furthermore, individuals with high alexithymia showed significantly weaker sensitivity to moral norms than did those with low alexithymia, whereas there were no significant differences in sensitivity to consequences or a general preference for inaction versus action (Study 2). Conclusion The findings suggest that alexithymia affects moral choice in sacrificial dilemmas by blunting emotional reactions to causing harm, rather than through increased deliberative cost–benefit reasoning or general preference for inaction.

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Perceptive and affective impairments in emotive eye-region processing in alexithymia

Cited by 4 publications

References 84 publications

The relationship between alexithymia, depression, anxiety, and stress in elderly with multiple chronic conditions in China: a network analysis

The relationship between alexithymia, depression, anxiety, and stress in elderly with multiple chronic conditions in China: a network analysis

Recognizing and Looking at Masked Emotional Faces in Alexithymia

Effects of Alexithymia on Moral Decision-Making in Sacrificial Dilemmas: High Alexithymia is Associated with Weaker Sensitivity to Moral Norms

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