Evidence of abnormal scalar timing property in alexithymia

Abstract

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.

Individual predictors of vaccine hesitancy in the Italian post COVID-19 pandemic era

“…Contrary to our expectations and the current literature in the field, 21 , 27 political orientation, anxiety, and disgust sensitivity/propensity did not predict hesitancy/resistance to vaccination in the post COVID-19 pandemics state (see Table 1 ). This might be caused by the less stressful context of the post-pandemic situation compared to the pandemic phase, the relatively small sample size and thus insufficient power, or because the examined variables only predict COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy rather than being a general landmark/index of the attitude to vaccination, which was investigated in our study.…”

“…In addition, we explored possibly relevant psychological factors: alexithymia, anxiety, and interoceptive awareness. Alexithymia is the difficulty to identify and describe own emotions and the emotions of others, 20 , 21 which might be relevant for vaccine hesitancy. 22–24 The rationale for suggesting a predictive role of alexithymia in vaccine hesitancy is based on the concept that a lack of access to own emotions and emotional empathy compromises the ability to understand the emotional significance of protecting oneself and others from infection through vaccination.…”

The Role of Serotonin in Fear Learning and Memory: A Systematic Review of Human Studies

“…From an evolutionary perspective, it is highly advantageous to retain vivid memories of significant life experiences to learn from mistakes and avoid potential dangers in the future [ 18 , 19 , 20 ]. However, when fear learning and fear memories become abnormal and persistent, they can contribute to mental disorders like anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ]. 5-HT has been implicated in the development and maintenance of these disorders, as well as depression [ 30 , 31 , 32 ].…”

Experiments on real-life emotions challenge Ekman's model

“…In order to test the hypothesis, we have administered a standard questionnaire to a community of people with the same social and cultural background, using a cognitive method, giving particular importance to alexithymia, described as a characteristic or personality trait characterised by a processing disorder affective-emotional that causes difficulties in identifying and describing feelings and emotions 25 – 28 .…”