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"Lacking warmth": Alexithymia trait is related to warm-specific thermal somatosensory processing
Khatereh Borhani1, Elisabetta Làdavas2, Aikaterini Fotopoulou3
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK; Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat 5, 40127 Bologna, Italy; CSRNC, Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bologna, Viale Europa 980, 47521 Cesena, Italy; Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract:
Alexithymia is a personality trait involving deficits in emotional processing. The personality construct has been extensively validated, but the underlying neural and physiological systems remain controversial. One theory suggests that low-level somatosensory mechanisms act as somatic markers of emotion, underpinning cognitive and affective impairments in alexithymia. In two separate samples (total N=100), we used an established Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST) battery to probe multiple neurophysiological submodalities of somatosensation, and investigated their associations with the widely-used Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Experiment one found reduced sensitivity to warmth in people with higher alexithymia scores, compared to individuals with lower scores, without deficits in other somatosensory submodalities. Experiment two replicated this result in a new group of participants using a full-sample correlation between threshold for warm detection and TAS-20 scores. We discuss the relations between low-level thermoceptive function and cognitive processing of emotion.
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