Paradiso Sergio, Vaidya Jatin G, McCormick Laurie M, Jones Andria, Robinson Robert G
Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2008 Sep;16(9):760-9. doi: 10.1097/JGP.0b013e31817e73b0. Epub 2008 Aug 12.
Previous studies have linked alexithymia to an inability to process emotions appropriately. Older persons show changes in emotion processing and have higher alexithymia scores. Because the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is one of the regions showing earlier decline in late-life, and alexithymia seems to be related to a dysfunction in right hemisphere regions including the ACC subserving affective processes, the present study sought to test the hypothesis that reduced ACC volume accounts for the association between older age and alexithymia.
Correlation analyses between functionally distinct ACC subregions, age and alexithymia features.
University of Iowa.
Twenty-four healthy volunteers aged between 24 and 79 years.
Psychiatric and neuropsychological assessment and assessment of alexithymia using the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale. High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging, and in-house developed methods for ACC parcellation.
Older age directly correlated with higher overall alexithymia and reduced bilateral rostral and right dorsal ACC gray matter volume. Furthermore, higher alexithymia scores correlated with reduced right rostral ACC volume. This correlation seems to be influenced primarily by Factor 3 of the alexithymia scale measuring diversion of attention to external details in place of internal feelings.
These results suggest that alexithymia in older age may be a result of structural changes in the right rostral ACC.
以往研究已将述情障碍与无法恰当地处理情绪联系起来。老年人在情绪处理方面表现出变化，且述情障碍得分更高。由于前扣带回皮质（ACC）是在晚年出现较早衰退的脑区之一，而且述情障碍似乎与包括ACC在内的右半球区域功能障碍有关，这些区域负责情感过程，因此本研究试图检验这一假设，即ACC体积减小是导致老年人与述情障碍之间关联的原因。
对功能不同的ACC亚区、年龄和述情障碍特征进行相关性分析。
爱荷华大学。
24名年龄在24至79岁之间的健康志愿者。
进行精神和神经心理学评估，并使用20项多伦多述情障碍量表对述情障碍进行评估。采用高分辨率磁共振成像以及内部开发的ACC分割方法。
年龄越大，整体述情障碍程度越高，双侧喙部和右侧背侧ACC灰质体积减小。此外，述情障碍得分越高，右侧喙部ACC体积越小。这种相关性似乎主要受述情障碍量表中因子3的影响，该因子测量的是注意力从内心感受转向外部细节的程度。
这些结果表明，老年人的述情障碍可能是右侧喙部ACC结构变化的结果。
