The relationship between alexithymia, interoception, and neural functional connectivity during facial expression processing in autism spectrum disorder.

ABSTRACT: Neural processing differences of emotional facial expressions, while common in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), may be related to co-occurring alexithymia and interoceptive processing differences rather than autism per se. Here, we investigate relationships between alexithymia, interoceptive awareness of emotions, and functional connectivity during observation of facial expressions in youth (aged 8-17) with ASD (n = 28) compared to typically developing peers (TD; n = 37). Behaviorally, we found no significant differences between ASD and TD groups in interoceptive awareness of emotions, though alexithymia severity was significantly higher in the ASD group. In the ASD group, increased alexithymia was significantly correlated with lower interoceptive sensation felt during emotion. Using psycho

SUBMITTER: Butera C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9898240 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature