No Words for Feelings? Not Only for My Own: Diminished Emotional Empathic Ability in Alexithymia.

Isabella Heuser,Elif Alkan Härtwig,Sabine Aust,Hauke R Heekeren

doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2020.00112

Abstract

The present study has been designed to disentangle cognitive and emotional dimensions of empathy in a group of mentally healthy and highly alexithymic individuals (ALEX, n = 24) and well-matched controls (n = 26) through questionnaire Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and Multifaceted Empathy Task (MET) used during the fMRI and after the fMRI. Simultaneously, Skin Conductance Response (SCR) has been acquired as an implicit measure of emotional reaction. Results show an impaired emotional empathic ability in alexithymic individuals, with lower levels of SCR and higher activation in prefrontal brain regions such as the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Cognitive empathy was not impaired in the alexithymic group and the results were accompanied by a higher activation left IFG. The study leads to the conclusion that alexithymia does not only involve a diminished ability to identify and describe one’s own emotions. Furthermore, it is related to a deeper disability of emotion regulation, which becomes visible through impaired emotional concern for others and higher levels of personal distress.

Highlights

Understanding each other, cognitively as well as emotionally, is one of the marks of the human
Subjective Ratings of Emotional Experience ALEX showed significantly lower emotional empathy and subjective arousal than the controls, which has been seen in the main effect of group in ANOVA (F(1,46) = 8.248, p = 0.006; controlled for Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)-T) and in post hoc t-tests of Empathy-condition (T(48) = −2.585; p = 0.012) and Arousalcondition (T(48) = −3.154; p = 0.003; see Figure 4 for details)
Cognitive empathy has been measured by Multifaceted Empathy Task (MET), which implemented cognitive empathy as an ability to name the emotional states of others

Summary

Introduction

Understanding each other, cognitively as well as emotionally, is one of the marks of the human. Humans are differently equipped with the ability to understand others and themselves. Some of these inabilities might stem from a mental disorder, while others can be attributed to differences in personality. Some personality traits lay on the border of personality accentuation and disorder and have yet to be researched. Alexithymia (Sifneos, 1973) is a personality trait associated with impairments in identifying and describing one’s own emotions, an externally oriented thinking style, and a restricted ability to fantasize. Alexithymia has been associated with many psychiatric disorders and is considered a risk factor for mental health (Taylor, 2004; Conrad et al, 2009)

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Conclusion