The relationship between the affective components of alexithymia and facial recognition and expression of emotion

Abstract

Alexithymia, a trait characterized by difficulties in identifying and describing emotions, is associated with deficits in emotion recognition. In the first study, one hundred and forty undergraduates completed a facial emotion recognition test. Results indicated that the difficulty identifying feelings (DIF) and the difficulty describing feelings (DDF) aspects of alexithymia differentially predicted emotion recognition accuracy. In the second study, fifty six undergraduates viewed faces which changed from neutral to emotional expressions ending at four intensity levels. Facial electromyography at the corrugator supercili and zygomaticus major muscle regions indicated that the relationship between corrugator activity and DIF was significant when happy faces were contrasted with angry and sad faces. High DDF was associated with increased corrugator activation to emotional faces as intensity increased; and greater zygomaticus activation to high intensity faces. Both studies provide support for emotional processing deficits associated with alexithymia.