Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Affective and Social Neuroscience, Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center, Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive Sciences, Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive Sciences, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells & Systems, Section Cognitive Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen 9713AW, The Netherlands.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2022 Oct 3;17(10):912-922. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsac013.
Alexithymia is characterized by impairments in emotion processing, frequently linked to facial expressions of emotion. The eye-region conveys information necessary for emotion processing. It has been demonstrated that alexithymia is associated with reduced attention to the eyes, but little is known regarding the cognitive and electrophysiological mechanisms underlying emotive eye-region processing in alexithymia. Here, we recorded behavioral and electrophysiological responses of individuals with alexithymia (ALEX; n = 25) and individuals without alexithymia (NonALEX; n = 23) while they viewed intact and eyeless faces with angry and sad expressions during a dual-target rapid serial visual presentation task. Results showed different eye-region focuses and differentiating N1 responses between intact and eyeless faces to anger and sadness in NonALEX, but not in ALEX, suggesting deficient perceptual processing of the eye-region in alexithymia. Reduced eye-region focus and smaller differences in frontal alpha asymmetry in response to sadness between intact and eyeless faces were observed in ALEX than NonALEX, indicative of impaired affective processing of the eye-region in alexithymia. These findings highlight perceptual and affective abnormalities of emotive eye-region processing in alexithymia. Our results contribute to understanding the neuropsychopathology of alexithymia and alexithymia-related disorders.
述情障碍的特点是情绪处理受损,常与情绪的面部表情有关。眼部区域传达了情绪处理所需的信息。已经证明述情障碍与对眼睛的注意力减少有关,但对于述情障碍中情感眼部区域处理的认知和电生理机制知之甚少。在这里,我们记录了有述情障碍(ALEX;n=25)和无述情障碍(NonALEX;n=23)的个体在观看带有愤怒和悲伤表情的完整和无眼面孔以及在愤怒和悲伤时进行双目标快速序列视觉呈现任务时的行为和电生理反应。结果表明,在 NonALEX 中,对愤怒和悲伤的完整和无眼面孔存在不同的眼部焦点和区分 N1 反应,但在 ALEX 中则不然,这表明述情障碍中眼部区域的知觉处理能力受损。与 NonALEX 相比,在 ALEX 中,对悲伤的完整和无眼面孔的额α不对称反应中眼部焦点减少且差异较小,表明述情障碍中眼部区域的情感处理受损。这些发现强调了述情障碍中情感眼部区域处理的知觉和情感异常。我们的研究结果有助于理解述情障碍和述情障碍相关障碍的神经心理学病理。