| Objective: (1) To compare the difference of positive and negative affect intensity to emotional stimuli between alexithymic and nonalexithymic, and explore whether the affect intensity of alexthymic is in lower level. (2) To compare the difference of cognitive emotion regulation strategies between alexithymic and nonalexithymic, and analyze the characteristics of emotion regulation in alexithymia. (3) To compare the ratings of affective pictures on valence, arousal and dominant dimensions between alexithymic and nonalexithymic, and examine the emotion cognitive processing deficit in alexithymia.Methods: The Chinese Translation of Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20-C) was used to screen subjects, and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) was used to evaluate the cognitive emotion regulation strategies, while the Short Affect Intensity Scale (SAIS) was applied to assess the affect intensity. According to the TAS-20-C scores, 117 alexithymic (TAS-20-C scores≥58 )and 118 nonalexithymic (TAS-20-C scores≤38) were selected from the full data,and their scores on CES-D, SAIS and CERQ were compared. All these 235 subjects finished the TAS-20-C twice with a two to three months interval, 51 alexithymic and 54 nonalexithymic were then selected from them and required to give scores to three dimensions (valence, arousal and dominant) of 120 affective pictures selected from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). The scores of three dimensions were then compared between alexithymic and nonalexithymic.Results: (1) Compared to the nonalexithymic, alexithymic subjects got higher scores on three subscales (rumination, catastrophizing and blaming others) and on the negative coping dimension, while got lower scores on refocusing on planning, positive reappraisal, putting into perspective and positive coping. The differences between alexithymic and nonalexithymic were large in refocusing on planning, positive reappraisal, catastrophizing and negative coping (the|Cohen'd| were 0.95,0.90,1.31,0.92). (2) Alexithymic had lower scores on positive intensity and negative intensity (positive intensity: 4.05±0.81; negative intensity: 3.65±0.73) than nonalexithymic (positive intensity: 4.30±0.75 negative intensity: 4.22±0.68), while had higher scores on serenity factor (3.16±0.74) than nonalexithymic (2.89±0.76) . The Cohen'd indicated that there were great group difference on negative intensity. (3) On the valence dimension rating, alexithymic rated positive pictures less pleasurable(alexithymic: 7.01±0.98; nonalexithymic: 7.67±1.03) and negative pictures less unpleasant (alexithymic: 2.37±1.04;nonalexithymic:1.35±0.96). On the arousal dimension, alexithymic gave lower scores to both positive pictures (6.31±1.23)and negative pictures (6.44±1.48)than nonalexithymic(positive: 6.77±1.08; negative : 7.21±1.39). On the dominant dimension, alexithymic gave higher scores (3.11±1.29) to negative pictures than nonalexithymic (2.41±1.22), and there were no significant group differences on all three dimensions of neutral pictures.Conclusion: (1) Alexithymic subjects more often use negative coping strategies to regulate emotion, such as rumination, catastrophizing and blaming others, while less use positive coping strategies (refocus on planning,positive reappraisal and putting into perspective), which suggests that alexithymia has deficit in emotion regulation. (2) When confronting with positive or negative events, alexithymic have less intense affect than nonalexithymic, the positive affect of satisfaction,calm and comfortable are more common in alexithymia. (3) There were significant differences between alexithymic and nonalexithymic in the valence and arousal rating of affective pictures, which supports that alexithymic have deficit in emotion cognitive processing. Objective: (1)To analyze the behavioral performance (correct rate and mean reaction latency) and Event-related potentials elicited by the target pictures during subliminal or supraliminal affective priming task,and provide related neurophysiological information and support for the automatic affect processing of affective priming effect. (2) To compare the differences of behavioral performance and cerebral activities patterns to affective pictures on three SOA levels between alexithymic and nonalexithymic, and investigate the characteristics of affective priming effect in alexithymia and explore whether alexithymic have deficit at the automatic level of emotion processing.Methods: The Chinese Translation of Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20-C) was applied to screen alexithymic and nonalexithymic, and subjects with high scores or low scores were required to finish the TAS-20-C twice with a three months interval. 23 alexithymic (TAS-20-C≥61,both times)and 23 nonalexithymic (TAS-20-C≤51, both times) were selected to enter in the affective priming experiments. On three SOA levels, prime pictures were presented subliminally or supraliminally, and subjects were required to judge whether the target picture was a positive or a negative picture as soon as possible, while the ERPs was recorded during the subjects performing the task. The correct rates and mean reaction latencies were subjected to ANOVA with repeated measures. The ERPs waves under three conditions (primed,unprimed, control) were overlapped and averaged separately and then the peak latencies and peak amplitudes of related ERPs components were compared between alexithymic and nonalexithymic.Results: (1) In both subliminal and supraliminal affective priming tasks, significant main effects of affective congruence were found for both correct rates and mean response latencies. The mean response latencies were significantly longer for affectively incongruent trials (unprimed condition), as compared to those for affectively congruent (primed condition) and control trials (control condition). The correct rates for affectively incongruent trials were the lowest. (2) Significant main effect of target pictures was also found. Subjects were relatively slower to respond to positive target pictures than to negative target pictures. (3) In subliminal affective priming task, there were no significant differences of correct rates and latencies between alexithymic and nonalexithymic,while on the both two SOA levels (200ms and 300ms) of supraliminal priming task, the mean response latencies of alexithymic were longer than those of nonalexithymic. (4) In both subliminal and supraliminal affective priming tasks, P2 and P3 were elicited by both alexithymic and nonalexithymic during performing the affective priming task. The early affective priming ERPs effect was characterized by a longer P2 peak latency and decreased P2 peak amplitude for control condition as compared to primed and unprimed conditions; the late affective priming ERPs effect consisted of a shorter P3 latency and attenuated P3 peak amplitude for primed condition as compared to unprimed condition. (5)In subliminal affective priming task, there were no significant differences of P2 and P3 between alexithymic and nonalexithymic, including the peak latencies and the peak amplitudes; On both two levels of supraliminal priming tasks, the alexithymic was characterized by the decreased P2 peak amplitude and P3 peak amplitude. (6)The ERPs difference wave N600 (primed minus unprimed) showed a significant difference between alexithymic and nonalexithymic in the supraliminal priming task, but no significant difference in the subliminal affective priming task.Conclusion: (1) Affective priming effect was observed in alexithymic and nonalexithymic from their behavior data, including the unconscious and the conscious affective priming effect. (2) There were early and late affective priming ERPs effect in alexithymic and nonalexithymic, which were characterized by P2 and P3, respectively. (3)Negativity bias was observed in affective priming task. (4)On unconscious level, alexthymia shows no deficit in automatic processing for emotional information that was not aware of. (5)Alexithymic have deficit in automatic processing for emotional information that was aware of, and the deficit could be reflected by behavior data and ERPs. |
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