Santorelli Gennarina D, Ready Rebecca E
a Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences , The University of Massachusetts , Amherst , MA , USA.
Clin Neuropsychol. 2015;29(7):938-55. doi: 10.1080/13854046.2015.1123296. Epub 2015 Dec 24.
Alexithymia is associated with adverse mental and physical health outcomes. Determining neuropsychological factors associated with alexithymia may aid in elucidating its underlying mechanisms and identifying treatment targets. Accumulating evidence indicates that executive dysfunction may co-occur with alexithymia in younger adults (YA). However, research on this link in older adults (OA), who may be at greater risk for alexithymia, is scant. This study determined associations between alexithymia and executive function (EF) in healthy younger and OA. Alexithymia was predicted to be associated with poorer EF in both age-groups.
Younger (n = 65, aged 18-30; 46% female) and OA (n = 44, aged 61-92; 73% female) completed the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, three EF tasks (Verbal Fluency, Design Fluency, and Trail Making), measures of memory and verbal IQ, and a self-report measure of depressive symptoms. Three EF composites were created to assess verbal EF, visuospatial EF, and global EF.
Greater alexithymia and difficulty describing feelings were associated with poorer verbal EF in OA (p = .02 and p = .005, respectively) but not in YA (ps > .05). The other neuropsychological measures were not significantly associated with alexithymia in regression analyses.
Findings are consistent with previous research identifying links between EF and alexithymia. The association between alexithymia and verbal EF may be due to shared prefrontal circuitry involved in emotion regulation. Results provide insight into possible origins of emotion self-awareness deficits in OA.
述情障碍与不良的心理和身体健康结果相关。确定与述情障碍相关的神经心理学因素可能有助于阐明其潜在机制并确定治疗靶点。越来越多的证据表明，执行功能障碍可能与年轻成年人（YA）的述情障碍同时出现。然而，对于可能患述情障碍风险更高的老年人（OA）中这种联系的研究却很少。本研究确定了健康的年轻人和老年人中述情障碍与执行功能（EF）之间的关联。预计在两个年龄组中，述情障碍都与较差的执行功能相关。
年轻人（n = 65，年龄18 - 30岁；46%为女性）和老年人（n = 44，年龄61 - 92岁；73%为女性）完成了20项多伦多述情障碍量表、三项执行功能任务（语言流畅性、图形流畅性和连线测验）、记忆和语言智商测量以及抑郁症状的自我报告测量。创建了三个执行功能综合指标来评估语言执行功能、视觉空间执行功能和整体执行功能。
在老年人中，较高的述情障碍和描述情感困难与较差的语言执行功能相关（分别为p = 0.02和p = 0.005），但在年轻人中不相关（p值 > 0.05）。在回归分析中，其他神经心理学测量与述情障碍无显著关联。
研究结果与之前确定执行功能和述情障碍之间联系的研究一致。述情障碍与语言执行功能之间的关联可能归因于参与情绪调节的共同前额叶回路。研究结果为老年人情绪自我意识缺陷的可能根源提供了见解。
