Related Experiment Videos
[Different patterns of regional brain activation during emotional stimulation in alexithymics in comparison with
Michael Huber1, Karl Herholz, Birgit Habedank
1Institut und Poliklinik für Psychosomatik und Psychotherapie der Universität zu Köln, Germany. Michael.Huber@Uni-Koeln.de
Objective:
This study was designed to determine patterns of regional brain activation during emotional stimulation in alexithymics as compared with normal controls.
Method:
We used 15O-water positron emission tomography and an emotional stimulation paradigm based upon autobiographic recall of either happy, sad or emotionally neutral situations. 10 normal subjects without medical or psychiatrical history were compared with 9 patients with somatoform disorder without any other DSM-IV diagnosis. TAS-20 was used as a measure for alexithymia, depression was measured using BDI.
Results:
Normal controls showed significantly greater activation than alexithymics in cingulate areas, corpus callosum, and right superior and inferior frontal gyrus. Alexithymics activated significantly more in cuneus and precuneus, thalamus (pulvinar), left medial frontal, right inferior temporal, left superior temporal regions, left precentral gyrus, and the cerebellum.
Conclusions:
During emotional autobiographic recall, alexithymia, either trait or state, is characterized by utilization of different brain regions when compared to normal controls. The areas activated by alexithymic persons largely comprise of language related regions, leaving out limbic and paralimbic areas.