Alexithymia Is Linked with a Negative Bias for Past and Current Events in Healthy Humans

Barchetta, Silvia; Martino, Gabriella; Craparo, Giuseppe; Salehinejad, Mohammad Ali; Nitsche, Michael A.; Vicario, Carmelo M.

doi:10.3390/ijerph18136696

Cited by 22 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…Some recent contributions have also emphasised aspects related to temporal experience showing that individuals with manifest alexithymia are characterized by a high tendency to focus on negative aspects of the past and interpret the present fatalistically. This suggests that difficulties in identifying and describing feelings and emotions are associated with a negative bias for past and present events (Barchetta et al, 2021;Diotaiuti et al, 2021c).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metric Goodness and Measurement Invariance of the Italian Brief Version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index: A Study With Young Adults

et al. 2021

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The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) is a widely used multidimensional measure to assess empathy across four main dimensions: perspective taking (PT) empathic concern (EC) personal distress (PD) fantasy (F). This study aimed to replicate the Italian validation process of the shortened IRI (Interpersonal Reactivity Index) scale in order to confirm its psychometric properties with a sample of young adults. The Gender Measurement Invariance of empathy in this age group was also an objective of the work in order to increase the data on this aspect. A total of 683 Italian university students participated in a non-probabilistic sampling. The 16-item version was confirmed in its four-factor structure but with changes to some items. The model showed good fits with both the CFA and the gender Measurement Invariance. The internal consistency measures were found to be fully satisfactory. Convergent validity was tested by the correlations with the Prosocialness Scale for Adults and The Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20. As hypothesized the measure proved good convergent validity with Prosocialness, i.e., the willingness to assist, help, share, care and empathy with others, and a relevant inverse association with the External Oriented Thinking, characterizing individuals with emotionally poor thinking. This research provided additional evidence for a link between alexithymia and poor empathic abilities in young adults.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metric Goodness and Measurement Invariance of the Italian Brief Version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index: A Study With Young Adults

et al. 2021

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“…A recent study of our group [ 18 ] has explored the temporal perspective in Alexithymia using the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory [ 19 ]. This scale is composed of 56 items, to detect individual differences in time-orientation regarding different aspects of the past, present, and future.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of abnormal scalar timing property in alexithymia

et al. 2023

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Evidence suggests that incidental modulation of affective states affects the ability to keep track of time. Alexithymia represents an ideal condition to further address the emotion-time processing link, as it refers to a trait characterized by a deficit of affective processing. 31 healthy participants completed an online version of the TAS-20 scale, which measures alexithymia, and a time reproduction task of visual stimuli related to positive (i.e., happiness) and negative (i.e., anger) facial expressions. Results documented a positive correlation between TAS-20 score and the variability in reproducing sub-second durations of the anger expression stimuli We also found an overestimation of sub-second durations of non-affective expressions in borderline/alexithymic participants. Finally, in line with the literature, we confirmed the overall tendency to overestimate the duration of anger expression stimuli. These findings, which can be interpreted in terms of abnormal scalar timing property in alexithymia, expand previous investigations linking this personality trait with abnormal processing of negative emotions. The evidence that alexithymia predicts the reproduction variability of sub-second durations of negative affective stimuli corroborates previous neuroimaging studies documenting cerebellar deficits in these individuals.

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“…Another relevant factor that has been shown to negatively influence the extent of depressive symptoms and which seems to share the inflammatory pattern and the correlation with various chronic inflammatory diseases, is represented by alexithymia, the difficulty in identifying, recognizing, distinguish, and express the own and others feelings [ 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 ]. Similarly, with specific regard to alexithymia, recent studies highlighted a pathogenetic correlation with specific inflammatory markers such as TNF-α and IL-6 exists [ 36 , 37 , 38 , 65 , 66 , 67 ].…”

Section: Correlation Between Depression and Other Psychopathological ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Neuro-Inflammaging and Psychopathological Distress

et al. 2022

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Inflammaging is a low degree of chronic and systemic tissue inflammation associated with aging, and is intimately linked to pro-inflammatory mediators. These substances are involved in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory diseases and related psychopathological symptoms. When inflammation and aging affect the brain, we use the term neuro-inflammaging. In this review, we focused on the neuro-inflammatory process typical of advanced ages and the related psychopathological symptoms, with particular attention to understanding the immune-pathogenetic mechanisms involved and the potential use of immunomodulatory drugs in the control of clinical psychological signs. Inflammation and CNS were demonstrated being intimately linked in the neuro-inflammatory loop. IL-1, IL-6, TNF-a, COX and PGE are only partially responsible. BBB permeability and the consequent oxidative stress resulting from tissue damage make the rest. Some authors elaborated the “theory of cytokine-induced depression”. Inflammation has a crucial role in the onset symptoms of psychopathological diseases as it is capable of altering the metabolism of biogenic monoamines involved in their pathogenesis. In recent years, NSAIDs as an adjunct therapy in the treatment of relevant psychopathological disorders associated with chronic inflammatory conditions demonstrated their efficacy. Additionally, novel molecules have been studied, such as adalimumab, infliximab, and etanercept showing antidepressant and anxiolytic promising results. However, we are only at the beginning of a new era characterized by the use of biological drugs for the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, and this paper aims to stimulate future studies in such a direction.

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Alexithymia Is Linked with a Negative Bias for Past and Current Events in Healthy Humans

Cited by 22 publications

References 62 publications

Metric Goodness and Measurement Invariance of the Italian Brief Version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index: A Study With Young Adults

Metric Goodness and Measurement Invariance of the Italian Brief Version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index: A Study With Young Adults

Evidence of abnormal scalar timing property in alexithymia

Neuro-Inflammaging and Psychopathological Distress

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