Clarifying the relationship between alexithymia and subjective interoception.
The long-standing hypothesis that emotions rely on bodily states is back in the spotlight. This has led some researchers to suggest that alexithymia, a personality construct characterized by altered emotional awareness, reflects a general deficit in interoception. However, tests of this hypothesis h...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2021-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261126 |
| _version_ | 1798013781916254208 |
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| author | Giulia Gaggero Andrea Bizzego Sara Dellantonio Luigi Pastore Mengyu Lim Gianluca Esposito |
| author_facet | Giulia Gaggero Andrea Bizzego Sara Dellantonio Luigi Pastore Mengyu Lim Gianluca Esposito |
| author_sort | Giulia Gaggero |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The long-standing hypothesis that emotions rely on bodily states is back in the spotlight. This has led some researchers to suggest that alexithymia, a personality construct characterized by altered emotional awareness, reflects a general deficit in interoception. However, tests of this hypothesis have relied on heterogeneous assessment methods, leading to inconsistent results. To shed some light on this issue, we administered a battery of self-report questionnaires of interoception and alexithymia to three samples from Italy, the U.S., and Singapore (N = 814). Correlation and machine learning analyses showed that alexithymia was associated with deficits in both subjective interoceptive accuracy and attention. Alexithymics' interoceptive deficits were primarily related to difficulty identifying and describing feelings. Interoception showed a weaker association with externally-oriented thinking as operationalized by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and no association with the affective dimension of alexithymia later introduced by the Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire (BVAQ). We discuss our results with reference to the theoretical and psychometric differences between these two measures of alexithymia and their shortcomings. Overall, our results support the view that interoceptive deficits are a core component of alexithymia, although the latter cannot be reduced to the former. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T15:08:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3d717665ac314072b15aa826eff90d5b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T15:08:13Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-3d717665ac314072b15aa826eff90d5b2022-12-22T04:16:44ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032021-01-011612e026112610.1371/journal.pone.0261126Clarifying the relationship between alexithymia and subjective interoception.Giulia GaggeroAndrea BizzegoSara DellantonioLuigi PastoreMengyu LimGianluca EspositoThe long-standing hypothesis that emotions rely on bodily states is back in the spotlight. This has led some researchers to suggest that alexithymia, a personality construct characterized by altered emotional awareness, reflects a general deficit in interoception. However, tests of this hypothesis have relied on heterogeneous assessment methods, leading to inconsistent results. To shed some light on this issue, we administered a battery of self-report questionnaires of interoception and alexithymia to three samples from Italy, the U.S., and Singapore (N = 814). Correlation and machine learning analyses showed that alexithymia was associated with deficits in both subjective interoceptive accuracy and attention. Alexithymics' interoceptive deficits were primarily related to difficulty identifying and describing feelings. Interoception showed a weaker association with externally-oriented thinking as operationalized by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and no association with the affective dimension of alexithymia later introduced by the Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire (BVAQ). We discuss our results with reference to the theoretical and psychometric differences between these two measures of alexithymia and their shortcomings. Overall, our results support the view that interoceptive deficits are a core component of alexithymia, although the latter cannot be reduced to the former.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261126 |
| spellingShingle | Giulia Gaggero Andrea Bizzego Sara Dellantonio Luigi Pastore Mengyu Lim Gianluca Esposito Clarifying the relationship between alexithymia and subjective interoception. PLoS ONE |
| title | Clarifying the relationship between alexithymia and subjective interoception. |
| title_full | Clarifying the relationship between alexithymia and subjective interoception. |
| title_fullStr | Clarifying the relationship between alexithymia and subjective interoception. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Clarifying the relationship between alexithymia and subjective interoception. |
| title_short | Clarifying the relationship between alexithymia and subjective interoception. |
| title_sort | clarifying the relationship between alexithymia and subjective interoception |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261126 |
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