A Functional Magnetic Resonance Study On Emotional Information Processing Of Alexithymia In University Students

Background:As a bridege between the inner experience and the outside world,emotion plays an important role in individual's social adaption and behavior regulation.The alexithymia is a multidimensional personality trait,which reflects people's differences in emotion description ability,emotion recognition ability and thinking and cognition way.In this study,we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to record brain regions activated by alexithymics and non-alexithymics when they were viewing the different emotional valence images,including positive,negative and neutral pictures.Through analyzing the changes in brain regions which were activated,we aimed to explore the underlying neuropathological basis of alexithymia when they were processing emotional information and to perfect the theory about this.Moreover,we wished to promote the university students' interpersonal communication as well as the development of their physical and mental health.Means:After testing the students in Hangzhou Normal University by the scales of TAS-20,SDS and SAS,we got 15 alexithymia group subjects and 19 non-alexithymia group subjects.Then we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to record brain regions activated by alexithymics and non-alexithymics when they were viewing the different emotional valence images(positive,negative and neutral)and compared them between the two groups.Results:(1)At a=0.01 level,the difference between alexithymia group and non-alexithymia groups' TAS score,the difficulty of identyfying feelings.the difficulty of describing feelings and externally oriented thinking was significantly different(P<0.001).(2)Analyzed within the group,when viewing negative pictures,the alexithymia's brain regions of bilateral fusiform,left parahippocampa gyrus,bilateral middle occipital gyrus,precuneus,anterior cingulated,bilateral middle temporal gyrus,posterior cingulate gyrus,left superior parietal gyrus,left inferior temporal gyrus,middle frontal gyrus,orbitalis of the right inferior frontal gyrus,precentral were activated.When viewing positive pictures,the alexithymia's brain regions of left middle occipital gyrus,parietal lobe,middle temporal gyrus,right angular gyrus were activated.When viewing negative pictures,the non-alexithymia's brain regions of bilateral middle occipital gyrus,bilateral middle temporal gyrus,precuneus,left superior parietal gyrus,left inferior parietal gyros,superior temporal gyrus,bilateral thalamus,bilateral superior occipital gyrus,left middle parietal gyrus,bilateral precentral gyrus,bilateral orbitalis of the right inferior frontal gyrus,superior frontal gyrus,cingulate gyrus were activated.When viewing positive pictures,the non-alexithymia's brain regions of bilateral middle occipital gyrus,right middle temporal gyrus,precuneus,right superior occipital gyrus,left superior parietal gyrus,right operculum of the inferior frontal gyrus were activated.(3)Having the two groups t-test,when viewing negative pictures,brain regions of occipital lobe,the right fusiform gyrus,parietal lobe,temporal lobe,the left middle occipital lobe,precuneus,the middle temporal gyrus,the left middle temporal gyrus,the left superior parietal lobe,the left inferior parietal lobe,the superior temporal gyrus,the right middle occipital gyrus,the right middle temporal gyrus and frontal lobe activated were significantly enhanced in alexithymia group:When watching neutral pictures,brain regions of frontal lobe,the left precentral gyrus,the inferior frontal gyrus were significantly lower activated in alexithymia group activity:When viewing a positive image,brain regions of the frontal lobe,precentral gyrus were significant reduced in alexithymia group activity,but the parietal lobe,the left postcentral activated significantly enhanced in alexithymia group.Conclusion:We found that alexithymics and non-alexithymics shared the similar active pattern of brain when processing different potency emotional pictures.That's to say,the cerebral cortex were not entirely separate in the processing of positive emotions and negative emotions,but there were a lot of overlap nerve pathways while adjusting the cerebral cortex to react to emotional processing of different potency.The emotional processing difficulties of alexithymia might be caused by some abnormally activated regions such as frontal lobe,temporal lobe,parietal lobe,fusiform and so on when they produced automatic reactions to emotional stimulus.Moreover,the abnormal activation of left precentral gyrus,left postcentral gyrus,right lingual gyrus,precuneus might also have an influence on alexithymia.Additionally,alexithymia was not just a result of abnormal brain regions,it might also make an exception of some brain regions simultaneously exist.