Alexithymia Moderates Salience Effects in Emotional Facial Expression Perception and Recognition
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21336879 |
|---|---|
| Authors | M Mas (0000-0002-6914-8009, Psychological Sciences Research Institute, UCLouvain Louvain‐la‐Neuve Belgium, corresponding author), Olivier Luminet (0000-0002-1519-2178, Psychological Sciences Research Institute, UCLouvain Louvain‐la‐Neuve Belgium) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | e70037-e70037 |
| Publication date | 2025-04-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-7594 • E-ISSN: 1464-066X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/ijop.70037 |
| PMID | 40045154 |
| OpenAlex | W4408245398 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 39 |
Alexithymia is a multi‐faceted personality trait associated with particularities in emotion processing and regulation. While alexithymia total scores have frequently been used to explain these particularities, recent models suggest a differentiated role of specific alexithymia facets at specific emotion processing stages. In this study, we investigated whether alexithymia total scores and facets moderate the effect of emotional salience on valence ratings, arousal ratings and correct emotion recognition. Ninety‐four non‐clinical participants provided valence and arousal ratings as well as discrete emotion labels for 160 pictures of emotional facial expressions varying in morphing intensity (40%, 60%, 80% and 100% emotion intensity) and discrete emotion type (happy, angry, disgusted, sad, fearful). Alexithymia levels were measured with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS‐20). Our results show that alexithymia total scores moderate arousal and emotion recognition at lower salience levels. Higher alexithymia total scores were associated with higher arousal ratings and higher emotion recognition probability, but only at 40% morphing intensity, which partially supports the over‐responding model of alexithymia. In addition, we found contrasted effects of alexithymia facets. Taken together, these results highlight the importance of focusing on emotional salience perception in alexithymia
Alexithymia · Arousal · Cognitive psychology · Facial expression · Perception · Salience (neuroscience) · Toronto Alexithymia Scale · Valence (chemistry) · Clinical Psychology · Communication · Face Recognition and Perception · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments · Social Psychology
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Salience processing and insular cortical function and dysfunction
Establishing the theoretical components of alexithymia via factor analysis
The twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia scale—I. Item selection and cross-validation of the factor structure
The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale
Cognitive-emotional processing in alexithymia
Negative valence specific deficits in judgements of musical affective quality in alexithymia
Processing of Facial Expressions of Negative Emotion in Alexithymia
Alexithymia characteristics are associated with salience network activity in healthy participants
| Highly cited | No |
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