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Invisible side of emotions: somato-motor responses to affective facial displays in alexithymia

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Abstract

According to recent theories, the detection of emotions involves somatic experiences. In this study, we investigated the relation between somatic responses to affective stimuli, emotion perception, and alexithymia. Variations in automatic rapid facial reactions (RFRs) were measured in a selected population of participants with high and low levels of alexithymia (HA and LA, respectively). Electromyographic activity was recorded from the corrugator supercilii and the zygomaticus major, while participants performed a gender classification task on faces expressing various emotional states. LA participants showed congruent RFRs in response to both fearful and happy stimuli. On the other hand, HA participants did not show congruent RFRs in response to fearful faces. They showed congruent, but delayed, RFRs in response to happy faces. These results provide evidence of a deficit in somato-motor emotional processing in people with high alexithymic personality traits, and thus support the hypothesis that alexithymia is associated with a deficit in emotional embodiment.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by grants from the University of Bologna (FARB 2014, protocol number: RFBO120993) awarded to Elisabetta Làdavas. We are grateful to Ermelinda Gunnella for helping with data collection and to Dr. Brianna Beck for her help in editing this article. Several results included in this manuscript are also described in CS PhD thesis “Deficit in the emotional embodiment in alexithymia” (2015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat 5, 40127, Bologna, Italy

    Cristina Scarpazza & Elisabetta Làdavas

  2. CSRNC, Center for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bologna, Viale Europa 980, 47023, Cesena, Italy

    Cristina Scarpazza & Elisabetta Làdavas

  3. Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement, Section of Physiology and Psychology, University of Verona, Strada Le Grazie 8, 37134, Verona, Italy

    Luigi Cattaneo

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  1. Cristina Scarpazza
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  2. Elisabetta Làdavas
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  3. Luigi Cattaneo
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Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: CS, EL, and LC. Performed the experiments: CS. Analyzed the data: CS and LC. Wrote the paper: CS, EL, and LC.

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Correspondence to Elisabetta Làdavas.

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Scarpazza, C., Làdavas, E. & Cattaneo, L. Invisible side of emotions: somato-motor responses to affective facial displays in alexithymia. Exp Brain Res 236, 195–206 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-017-5118-x

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