Disruption of early event-related theta synchronization of human EEG in alexithymics viewing affective pictures

The 62-channel EEG was recorded while control non-alexithymic (n=21) and alexithymic (n=20) participants viewed sequentially presented neutral, pleasant and unpleasant pictures and subjectively rated them after each presentation. The event-related synchronization (ERS) to these stimuli was assessed in the theta-1 (4-6 Hz) and theta-2 (6-8 Hz) frequency bands. The obtained findings indicate that alexithymia influences perception of only emotional stimuli. Over anterior cortical regions alexithymia vs. control individuals in response to both pleasant and unpleasant stimuli manifested decreased left hemisphere ERS in the early test period of 0-200 ms along with enhanced ERS in response to negative vs. positive and neutral stimuli in the right hemisphere at 200-600 ms after stimulus onset. The findings provide the first EEG evidence that alexithymia construct, associated with a cognitive deficit in initial evaluation of emotion, is indexed by disrupted early frontal synchronization in the upper theta band that can be best interpreted to reflect disregulation during appraisal of emotional stimuli.     

Electrophysiological evidence of early processing deficits in alexithymia

Alexithymia describes difficulties to identify and describe one's emotions. Previous research focused on difficulties associated with the later processing stages of appraisal in alexithymia. We tested whether early processing deficits are apparent in alexithymic persons and whether these abnormalities contribute to later processing difficulties. 20 participants were selected and identified as either having high (HDA) or low (LDA) degrees of alexithymia. IAPS pictures were presented while EEG was recorded. For HDA subjects processing of emotional pictures was accompanied by reduced P1 amplitudes most pronounced for pleasant and neutral pictures. In response to unpleasant pictures the P3 amplitudes were reduced. These amplitude modulations were predicted only by one alexithymia facet. P1 amplitudes systematically covaried with P3 amplitudes supporting the assumption that deficits in early emotional processing contribute to later processing deficits.     

Basic and complex emotions in depression and anxiety

The current study was designed to assess the emotion states that occur across the clinical disorders of depression, anxiety and mixed anxiety depression. The emotion states were assessed using the Basic Emotions Scale, which includes a set of simple and complex emotions rationally derived from the basic emotions of sadness, anger, fear, disgust and happiness. The profiles of emotion states across the clinical disorders and across a matched healthy control group supported an analysis in which emotions related to sadness and disgust were elevated in the depressed and mixed disorders, whereas increased levels of anger and fear, and decreased levels of happiness did not distinguish between clinical groups but were found in all disorders in comparison to healthy controls. Further factor analyses gave support for the proposed basic emotions model and did not support alternative models such as the Positive Affect‐Negative Affect model. The findings demonstrate how a theoretically based emotion analysis can provide a useful foundation from which to explore the emotional disorders. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Alexithymia and dissociative tendencies

This study is one of a series exploring the potential of affective variables as predictors of dissociative tendencies. Some clinicians have observed that traumatized children who develop a dissociative coping style also tend to fail to discriminate emotions by verbal means. The study therefore investigated a relationship between dissociation and alexithymia. Undergraduate psychology students were individually tested for dissociative tendencies, alexithymic characteristics, and ability to generate the names of emotions. Dissociation was found to be predicted by some aspects of alexithymia but not by affective fluency. The data are interpreted in terms of the concept of asymmetry of dissociative processes. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The expression and perception of facial emotion in alexithymia: a pilot study

The term alexithymia denotes a cluster of traits including a marked difficulty in finding words to describe emotions. Despite a rapidly growing literature, the construct has not been validated adequately. The present study addressed the validity of the construct. Twenty males assessed as alexithymic or not, on the basis of the Schalling-Sifneos Personality Scale, were videotaped during tasks designed to elicit spontaneous and posed facial expressions of emotion. They also rated the emotional impact of the tasks and prototypic displays of emotion. Results showed that alexithymics were comparable to controls in judgments of the impact of provocative slides and in their ability to label posed expressions. With the exception of expressions of anger and happiness, they were also comparable in the ability to pose emotions. Alexithymics showed a deficit in spontaneous displays of negative affect. Results support the validity of the concept and suggest that deficits in nonverbal expression are central to the phenomenon. Implications for conceptualizations of alexithymia and emotion are discussed.     

Recognition of dynamic facial expressions in peripheral and central vision

The present study investigated the effects of dynamic information on the recognition of emotional facial expressions across the visual field (i.e., central or peripheral vision). Facial stimuli with three pleasant expressions (excited, happy, and relaxed) and three unpleasant expressions (fearful, angry, and sad) were selected on the basis of valence and activation. The facial stimuli were presented dynamically or statically at either the central or peripheral visual field. Participants evaluated the emotional state of the target facial expression using a forced-choice task (N=34) and an Affect Grid (Russell, Weiss, & Mendelsohn, 1989) (N =39) requiring categorical and dimensional judgments about facial expressions. The results of the forced-choice task showed that only dynamic angry faces in peripheral vision had better recognition than the equivalent faces in the static condition. The results of the Affect Grid indicated that only the pleasant expressions presented in the peripheral field were significantly rated as more strongly pleasant. These findings suggest that an effect of dynamic information is more salient in peripheral vision than in central vision for recognizing certain facial expressions.     

A repressive coping style and affective, facial and physiological responses to looking at emotional pictures.

Previous studies have demonstrated increased physiological-emotional responses despite relatively low self-reported affect for individuals with a repressive coping style, as compared to control groups. The main question in the current study was whether such group differences could also be demonstrated by using the picture perception methodology of Lang. A second question was whether differences between these groups could be found in the habituation of physiological and emotional responses. Repressors (n=14), 'truly' low anxious participants (n=14), and moderately high anxious participants (n=13) were selected with the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale and the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale. Two sets of 27 pictures with alternating neutral, threatening and sexual content were presented whilst valence and arousal ratings, skin conductance, heart rate and facial muscle responses were measured. No straightforward group differences were found. However, the results suggest that differential habituation, and not a repressive coping style, may contribute to differential self-reported, facial and physiological-emotional responses.     

Repressive coping and blood lipids in men and women.

Studies have suggested that a repressive coping style, characterized by defensiveness against negative emotions, may be related to several adverse health outcomes. This study examined whether repressive coping is associated with blood lipids, and whether this association is influenced by age or sex. One hundred fourteen healthy adults completed the Marlowe-Crowne scale (MC) and the Bendig version of the Taylor Manifest Anxiety scale (TMAS) prior to having their blood drawn after an overnight fast. Hierarchical regression analyses showed a significant interaction of sex, MC, and TMAS on total cholesterol (F(1, 104) = 4.41, p < 0.05), after controlling for the influence of age, body mass index, and other main effects and interactions. Results showed that male repressors (high MC; low TMAS) had the highest cholesterol levels, while truly low anxious males (low MC; low TMAS) had the lowest levels. The opposite pattern was noted for women. There were no interactive effects of age and coping style on lipids. The results suggest that males who repress negative emotions may be at greater risk for atherosclerotic diseases.     

大学生生活事件对幸福感的影响:自我概念清晰性和应对方式的链式中介作用

目的:探讨大学生的自我概念清晰性和应对方式在生活事件和幸福感之间的中介作用。方法:采用青少年生活事件量表、自我概念清晰性问卷、简易应对方式问卷、生活满意度问卷和积极/消极情绪问卷对624名大学生进行测试。结果:(1)大学生的生活事件、自我概念清晰性和消极应对能够显著预测生活满意度(F=17.55,P0.001),在控制了生活事件后,自我概念清晰性和消极应对也能够显著预测消极情绪(F=65.37,P0.001);(2)生活事件、自我概念清晰性对消极应对方式的预测作用显著(F=72.59,P0.001);(3)大学生的生活事件对自我概念清晰性的预测作用显著(F=29.81,P0.001)。结论:大学生自我概念清晰性和消极应对在生活事件和生活满意度之间起着链式中介作用,并且在生活事件和消极情绪之间起着链式中介作用;自我概念清晰性对大学生的幸福感起到一定保护作用。     

Alexithymic features and automatic amygdala reactivity to facial emotion

Alexithymic individuals have difficulties in identifying and verbalizing their emotions. The amygdala is known to play a central role in processing emotion stimuli and in generating emotional experience. In the present study automatic amygdala reactivity to facial emotion was investigated as a function of alexithymia (as assessed by the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale). The Beck-Depression Inventory (BDI) and the State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory (STAI) were administered to measure participants' depressivity and trait anxiety. During 3T fMRI scanning, pictures of faces bearing sad, happy, and neutral expressions masked by neutral faces were presented to 21 healthy volunteers. The amygdala was selected as the region of interest (ROI) and voxel values of the ROI were extracted, summarized by mean and tested among the different conditions. A detection task was applied to assess participants' awareness of the masked emotional faces shown in the fMRI experiment. Masked sad and happy facial emotions led to greater right amygdala activation than masked neutral faces. The alexithymia feature difficulties identifying feelings was negatively correlated with the neural response of the right amygdala to masked sad faces, even when controlling for depressivity and anxiety. Reduced automatic amygdala responsivity may contribute to problems in identifying one's emotions in everyday life. Low spontaneous reactivity of the amygdala to sad faces could implicate less engagement in the encoding of negative emotional stimuli.     

Facing emotions in narcolepsy with cataplexy: haemodynamic and behavioural responses during emotional stimulation

Narcolepsy with cataplexy is a complex sleep disorder that affects the modulation of emotions: cataplexy, the key symptom of narcolepsy, is indeed strongly linked with emotions that usually trigger the episodes. Our study aimed to investigate haemodynamic and behavioural responses during emotional stimulation in narco‐cataplexy. Twelve adult drug‐naive narcoleptic patients (five males; age: 33.3 ± 9.4 years) and 12 healthy controls (five males; age: 30.9 ± 9.5 years) were exposed to emotional stimuli (pleasant, unpleasant and neutral pictures). Heart rate, arterial blood pressure and mean cerebral blood flow velocity of the middle cerebral arteries were continuously recorded using photoplethysmography and Doppler ultrasound. Ratings of valence and arousal and coping strategies were scored by the Self‐Assessment Manikin and by questionnaires, respectively. Narcoleptic patients' haemodynamic responses to pictures overlapped with the data obtained from controls: decrease of heart rate and increase of mean cerebral blood flow velocity regardless of pictures' content, increase of systolic blood pressure during the pleasant condition, and relative reduction of heart rate during pleasant and unpleasant conditions. However, when compared with controls, narcoleptic patients reported lower arousal scores during the pleasant and neutral stimulation, and lower valence scores during the pleasant condition, respectively, and also a lower score at the ‘focus on and venting of emotions’ dimensions of coping. Our results suggested that adult narcoleptic patients, compared with healthy controls, inhibited their emotion‐expressive behaviour to emotional stimulation, and that may be related to the development of adaptive cognitive strategies to face emotions avoiding cataplexy.     

Gamma band activity and its synchronization reflect the dysfunctional emotional processing in alexithymic persons

In the present study, we investigated the gamma band response and its phase synchrony between electrodes in alexithymia, which is characterized by a disability in identifying and describing feelings. Individuals with high and low alexithymia scores were selected according to the scores on the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale. EEG was recorded from alexithymic and nonalexithymic persons viewing emotionally negative or neutral stimuli. Nonalexithymic persons exhibited increased gamma band power and phase synchronization at the 400-450-ms time window when processing emotionally negative stimuli. Neither enhanced gamma band power nor phase synchronization was observed in alexithymic persons in the negative emotion condition. These results suggest that gamma band activity reflects emotional processing, and alexithymic persons may have a deficit in communication between brain regions or in the utilization of memory or emotional information during the processing of emotional stimuli.     

Defensive coping and blood pressure reactivity in medical patients

Two defensive coping styles, denial of illness and repressive coping, were studied in two groups of medical patients whose blood pressure (BP) was measured during a stress interview. Denial of illness was measured using the Levine Denial of Illness Scale (LDIS), and repressive coping was measured using a combination of the Marlowe-Crowne (MC) Social Desirability Scale and the SCL-90R anxiety subscale (ANX). Consistent with our prior research indicating that LDIS was associated with adaptive outcomes in the short run, high deniers manifested reduced systolic BP reactivity compared to low deniers. Although not related to repressive coping, systolic BP reactivity was correlated positively with MC and ANX separately. The results demonstrate that LDIS and MC measure different types of defensive coping. Current theories of the MC scale suggest two possible interpretations of the MC findings, one that focuses on avoidant coping and the second on attentional coping in high MC scorers.     

Who does expressive writing work for? Examination of alexithymia,splitting, and repressive coping style as moderators of the expressive writing paradigm

Objective. This paper examines the moderating influence of alexithymia, splitting, and repressive coping style in the expressive writing paradigm. Method. Eighty‐eight university students randomized to four weekly 20‐minute expressive or neutral writing sessions, with 1‐month follow‐up. Results. Expressive writing was more beneficial for individuals scoring higher on alexithymia and splitting, but not repressive coping. Conclusions. Future research should include personality measures in explorations of expressive writing to further understand the boundary conditions of the expressive writing paradigm.     

Alexithymia and childhood family environment

Little research has been conducted on the contribution of environmental factors to the development of alexithymic tendencies. Ninety-two university students were surveyed to determine if features of the childhood family environment could predict the level of alexithymic tendencies. The 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale was used to measure alexithymic tendencies. Also surveyed retrospectively were dimensions of the childhood family environment such as the family's level of cohesion, expressiveness, conflict, disengagement, sociability, enmeshment, organization, and parenting style. Multiple-regression analysis showed that the set of family-environment variables did predict alexithymia scores. The sole family variable independently predictive of global alexithymic tendencies was expressiveness, although other family variables were predictive of individual components of alexithymia. The findings are consistent with the view that the childhood family environment has a bearing on the development of alexithymic tendencies, although other explanations by no means are excluded.     

Music and emotion: electrophysiological correlates of the processing of pleasant and unpleasant music

Human emotion and its electrophysiological correlates are still poorly understood. The present study examined whether the valence of perceived emotions would differentially influence EEG power spectra and heart rate (HR). Pleasant and unpleasant emotions were induced by consonant and dissonant music. Unpleasant (compared to pleasant) music evoked a significant decrease of HR, replicating the pattern of HR responses previously described for the processing of emotional pictures, sounds, and films. In the EEG, pleasant (contrasted to unpleasant) music was associated with an increase of frontal midline (Fm) theta power. This effect is taken to reflect emotional processing in close interaction with attentional functions. These findings show that Fm theta is modulated by emotion more strongly than previously believed.     

军校新生心理适应现状及影响因素

目的:了解军校新生的心理适应水平,探究心理韧性、积极情绪、领悟社会支持和积极应对方式4个变量对心理适应的影响,为军校新生心理服务工作提供参考。方法:采用中文修订的心理韧性量表(CD-RISC)、正性负性情绪量表(PANAS)中文版中的积极情绪分量表、领悟社会支持量表(PSSS)、简易应对方式量表(SWCQ)中的积极应对方式分量表以及大学生心理适应能力自测问卷对方便取样抽取的某军校281名新生进行问卷调查。结果:军校新生心理适应现状处于中等水平者较多,心理韧性对心理适应水平影响显著(R2=0.423)。结论:可以通过心理韧性的提升促进军校新生的心理适应,还有本研究未纳入的变量对于心理适应的影响有待进一步研究。     

Negative affectivity and repressive coping: pervasive influence on self-reported mood, health, and coronary-prone behavior.

Negative affectivity (NA) and repressive coping (REP) are coping styles characterized by a disposition to either experience or avoid distress. This study investigated the potential influence of NA and REP on self-reported distress and coronary-prone behavior among 178 male cardiac patients undergoing rehabilitation. Based on their STAI-Trait and Marlowe-Crowne Scale scores, subjects were categorized as high NA (N = 72), low NA (N = 44), or REP (N = 62) individuals. With respect to subjective distress, high-NA individuals reported more negative mood states and health complaints than both low-NA and REP individuals (p less than 0.0001). In contrast, no association was found between coping style and cardiovascular fitness as measured by exercise stress testing (p = 0.87). Hence, it seems that (a) high-NA individuals overreacted to physical problems and (b) REP individuals warded off distress. These differences in coping style were stable over a period of 3 months. With respect to coronary-prone behavior, the current findings were largely inconsistent with previous research. NA was associated with Type A interview-rating (p less than 0.001), but not with Type A self-rating. REP individuals, however, had a significantly lower score on the Jenkins Activity Survey and the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale than both high-NA and low-NA individuals (p less than 0.0001). Supposed associations, therefore, between NA and self-rated coronary-prone behavior may in fact originate from the repressive coping style that characterizes some individuals low in NA. In summary, it may be stated that the findings of the current study suggest the use of NA and REP markers in research, so that the potential influence of these coping styles can be identified in the study of stress-health relationships.     

Are alexithymia and emotional characteristics of disclosure associated with blood pressure reactivity and psychological distress following written emotional disclosure/

Objectives This study had three aims: 1) to investigate whether cardiovascular responses to laboratory stress and levels of emotional distress were attenuated following written emotional disclosure; 2) to test, in addition to the potential main effects, whether levels of alexithymia moderated the impact of writing; and 3) to examine whether alexithymics who successfully disclosed emotion in their essays would experience positive effects following writing. Design and methods Eighty‐seven participants wrote about their most stressful life experience or about a non‐stressful experience, for 15 minutes, over 3 consecutive days. Two weeks later, blood pressure (BP) responses to laboratory stress and levels of emotional distress were assessed. Emotional characteristics of the disclosure essays were analysed with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count programme and alexithymia was assessed at baseline using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale‐20. Results Analyses found no evidence in support of the main effects of disclosure on cardiovascular responses to stress or on emotional distress. However, alexithymia was found to moderate the impact of writing such that non‐alexithymic participants in the experimental condition reported significantly lower emotional distress 2 weeks later. In addition, alexithymic participants who disclosed a greater number of negative when compared with positive emotion words exhibited reduced systolic and diastolic responses to stress. Conversely, non‐alexithymic participants who disclosed more positive and less negative emotion words displayed attenuated BP reactivity to stress. Conclusions The results of this exploratory study are important as they highlighted, in the absence of main effects, the importance of examining potential moderators of the emotional writing process. These findings may have implications for the development of cardiovascular health interventions.