Abstract.

The inability to recognize and describe emotions in the self is known as Alexithymia. Such inability, occurring more frequently in men, has been attributed to late suppression of emotion. In the present study we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the locus of processing emotional differences in alexithymia. We tested men, both those scoring high (score > 61) and controls who scored low (score < 51) on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 on an emotional face discrimination task (angry, happy, vs. neutral faces). We assessed three ERP components: P1 (100-200 ms after stimulus onset; an index of early perceptual processing), N170 (140-190 ms after stimulus onset; an index of early facial processing) and P3 (300-600 ms after stimulus onset; an index of late attentional suppression). While controls showed a stronger P3 effect for angry faces relative to happy and neutral faces, Alexithymic men showed no significant differences in P3 across emotions. Alexithymic men showed similar P1 and N170 amplitudes as controls but these components were delayed related to controls. These results suggest that the locus of processing differences between alexithymic men and controls occur both early in perceptual processing and later in conscious processing.

Contributors.

Elliott Jardin, Philip Allen, Ronald F. Levant, Mei-Ching Lien, Eric R McCurdy, Anthony Villalba, Peter Mallik, James R. Houston, Zachary T. Gerdes

Publication.

Journal of Cognitive Psychology