Abstract
Differential functional specialization of the left and right hemispheres for linguistic and emotional functions, respectively, suggest that interhemispheric communication via the corpus callosum is critical for emotional awareness. Accordingly, it has been hypothesized that the age-related decline in callosal connectivity mediates the frequently demonstrated reduction in emotional awareness in older age. The present study tests this hypothesis in a sample of 307 healthy individuals between 20–89 years using combined structural and diffusion-tensor magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the corpus callosum. As assumed, inter-hemispheric connectivity (midsagittal callosal area and thickness, as well as fractional anisotropy, FA) and emotional awareness (i.e., increase in externally-oriented thinking, EOT; assessed with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, TAS-20) were found to be reduced in older (> 60 years) compared to younger participants. Furthermore, relating callosal measures to emotional awareness, FA in the genu of the corpus callosum was found to be negatively correlated with EOT in male participants. Thus, “stronger” structural connectivity (higher FA) was related with higher emotional awareness (lower EOT). However, a formal mediation analysis did not support the notion that age-related decline in emotional awareness is mediated by the corpus callosum. Thus, the observed reduction of emotional awareness and callosal connectivity in older age likely reflects parallel but not inter-dependent processes.
Highlights
The concept emotional awareness summarizes an individual’s clarity about and attention to emotional experiences [1,2,3]
A comparable main effect was not found for Difficulties Identifying Feelings (DIF) (F(2,301) = 2.803, p = .062, η2 = .018) or Difficulties Describing Feelings (DDF) subscales (F(2,301)
Based on the callosal-relay model of emotional awareness and alexithymia [19, 20], the present study aimed to test the hypothesis that age-related decline of the corpus callosum significantly mediates the decrease in emotional awareness with age
Summary
The concept emotional awareness summarizes an individual’s clarity about and attention to emotional experiences [1,2,3]. While the individual degree of emotional awareness is considered a personality trait [4, 5], substantial inter-individual differences have been reported which have been found to be age-related [6, 7]. While studies on the content of emotional experiences indicate an improvement in emotional well-being into middle and old age [8, 9], emotional awareness appears to decline [10,11,12,13,14]. Using self-report measures, a substantial reduction in emotional awareness in older age can be observed [15,16,17,18].
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