"Lacking warmth": Alexithymia trait is related to warm-specific thermal somatosensory processing.

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 othe

SUBMITTER: Borhani K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5595273 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature