Alexithymia shapes intersubject synchrony in brain activity during interoceptive sensation representations

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Alexithymia is a condition impacting emotional processing.
• It's linked to interoceptive (internal body sensation) processing failures.
• Neural mechanisms of alexithymia's impact on interoception are not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how alexithymia influences brain activity during interoceptive sensation processing.
• To compare brain activity patterns between individuals with high and low alexithymia.

Main Methods:

• Task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed.
• Participants viewed words related to emotional interoceptive sensations.
• Intersubject correlation analysis was used to assess brain activity synchronization.

Main Results:

• Increased brain synchronization was observed in individuals with high alexithymia, particularly in cognitive control regions.
• The left middle occipital gyrus and right inferior frontal gyrus (orbital part) showed heightened activity.
• The amygdala and insula were identified as key regions for interoceptive sensation representation.

Conclusions:

• Findings highlight the neural basis of interoceptive deficits in high alexithymia.
• The study provides insights into brain mechanisms underlying emotional processing differences in alexithymia.
• Results have implications for understanding and potentially treating alexithymia.