Joint effect of alexithymia and mood on the categorization of nonverbal emotional vocalizations

Abstract

General rightsIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. The role of stable factors, such as alexithymia (i.e., difficulties identifying and expressing feelings, externally oriented cognitive style), or temporary factors, such as affective states (mood), on emotion perception has been widely investigated in the literature. However, little is known about the separate or joint effect of the alexithymia level and affective states (positive affectivity, negative affectivity) on the recognition of nonverbal emotional vocalizations (NEV) (e.g., laughs, cries, or sighs). In this study, participants had to categorize NEV communicating 10 emotions by selecting the correct verbal emotional label. Results show that the level of alexithymia is negatively correlated to the capacity to accurately categorize negative vocalizations, and more particularly sad NEV. On the other hand, negative affectivity appeared negatively correlated with the ability to accurately categorize NEV in general, and negative vocalizations in particular. After splitting the results by the alexithymia level (high vs. low scorers), significant associations between mood and accuracy rates were found in the group of high alexithymia scorers only. These findings support the idea that alexithymic features act across sensory modalities and suggest a mood-interference effect that would be stronger in those individuals.

Alexithymia and automatic processing of facial emotions: behavioral and neural findings

“…Results from a visual ERP study confirm that alexithymia is characterized by deficits in the early appraisal of angry faces: change and novelty are poorly detected in angry expressions [17]. Findings from an investigation on the categorization of nonverbal emotional vocalizations suggest that alexithymic deficits in emotion perception could occur across different sensory modalities [18].…”

Dissimilaridade das habilidades mentais, traços de personalidade, alexitimia e estado de humor em atletas de tiro esportivo das Forças Armadas

“…Ressaltamos a ausência de qualquer associação com os estados de humor e os fatores de alexitimia. Pesquisa prévia com universitários apontou correlações fracas entre o fator dificuldade em descrever sentimento da TAS-20 e o afeto negativo raiva (r s = -.28), entre o afeto negativo tristeza e o fator dificuldade em descrever sentimentos (r s = -.32) e entre o fator orientação externa e o afeto positivo contentamento (r s = -.22) (Bayot, et al, 2014). Outro estudo, com pacientes queixosos, apontou associações fracas e moderadas (r = -.20 -.51) entre os fatores da escala de alexitimia e os afetos positivos e negativos em geral (De Gucht, Fischler, & Heiser, 2004).…”

Beyond Face and Voice: A Review of Alexithymia and Emotion Perception in Music, Odor, Taste, and Touch

“…These findings on emotion perception in music are consistent with data from research on auditory emotion perception in speech and prosody. Previous studies examining healthy individuals and patients with mental disorders have revealed that alexithymia is related to a reduced capacity to recognize emotions from vocal expressions (Goerlich et al, 2011;Heaton et al, 2012;Bayot et al, 2014). Similarities of emotion expression in speech and music have been noticed early.…”

“…In humans, non-verbal vocalizations of basic emotions are universally recognized (Sauter et al, 2010). Alexithymia was found to be associated with a reduced capacity to recognize emotions from vocal expressions in healthy individuals and patients with mental disorders (Goerlich et al, 2011;Heaton et al, 2012;Bayot et al, 2014but see Swart et al, 2009, for null results).…”