Alexithymia predicts face emotion perception after acquired brain injury

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Rehabilitation Medicine

Background:

• Acquired brain injury (ABI) can lead to emotional processing deficits.
• Alexithymia, characterized by difficulty identifying and describing emotions, is frequently observed post-ABI.
• Understanding alexithymia's role in affect recognition is crucial for ABI rehabilitation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate alexithymia levels in individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI).
• To examine the relationship between alexithymia and affect recognition abilities following ABI.
• To differentiate the impact of stroke versus traumatic brain injury (TBI) on these factors.

Main Methods:

• Participants included 119 adults with moderate-to-severe ABI (TBI and stroke) and 99 neurologically healthy adults (NHA).
• Measures comprised the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20) and the Multicultural Facial Emotion Perception Test (MFEPT).
• Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were employed to assess predictors of affect recognition.

Main Results:

• Individuals with ABI exhibited significantly higher alexithymia than NHA.
• Difficulty Identifying Feelings (DIF) and Externally Oriented Thinking (EOT) subscales of the TAS-20 predicted affect recognition.
• The association between alexithymia (DIF, Difficulty Describing Feelings) and affect recognition was specific to the ABI group.

Conclusions:

• Acquired brain injury is associated with increased prevalence and severity of alexithymia.
• Alexithymia, particularly difficulty identifying feelings and externally oriented thinking, contributes to impaired affect recognition in ABI.
• These findings highlight alexithymia as a potential target for interventions aimed at improving emotional processing in ABI populations.