The psychophysiological mechanisms of alexithymia in autism spectrum disorder
Accumulating evidence indicates that co-occurring alexithymia underlies several facets of the social-emotional difficulties common in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. The mechanisms involved, however, remain poorly understood because measuring alexithymia relies heavily on self-report. To...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Jezik: | English |
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SAGE Publications
2016
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| _version_ | 1826273622359015424 |
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| author | Gaigg, S Cornell, A Bird, G |
| author_facet | Gaigg, S Cornell, A Bird, G |
| author_sort | Gaigg, S |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Accumulating evidence indicates that co-occurring alexithymia underlies several facets of the social-emotional difficulties common in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. The mechanisms involved, however, remain poorly understood because measuring alexithymia relies heavily on self-report. To address this issue, carefully matched groups of individuals with autism spectrum disorder and comparison participants rated 70 emotion-inducing pictures on subjectively experienced arousal while skin conductance responses were monitored objectively. The results demonstrated reliable correlations between these subjective and objective measures, and in both groups, around 25% of individual differences in this correlation (i.e. in emotion-relevant interoception) were accounted for by self-reported alexithymia. In the context of the wider literature, this suggests that alexithymia involves a disruption in how physiological arousal modulates the subjective experience of feelings in those with and without a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. Since mindfulness-based therapies foster greater awareness of thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations, the findings also have implications for how the symptoms and consequences of alexithymia (e.g. anxiety) might be ameliorated. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T22:31:00Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:5844ace7-f5c4-41f8-85df-499453d1821c |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T22:31:00Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | SAGE Publications |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:5844ace7-f5c4-41f8-85df-499453d1821c2022-03-26T17:02:14ZThe psychophysiological mechanisms of alexithymia in autism spectrum disorderJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:5844ace7-f5c4-41f8-85df-499453d1821cEnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordSAGE Publications2016Gaigg, SCornell, ABird, GAccumulating evidence indicates that co-occurring alexithymia underlies several facets of the social-emotional difficulties common in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. The mechanisms involved, however, remain poorly understood because measuring alexithymia relies heavily on self-report. To address this issue, carefully matched groups of individuals with autism spectrum disorder and comparison participants rated 70 emotion-inducing pictures on subjectively experienced arousal while skin conductance responses were monitored objectively. The results demonstrated reliable correlations between these subjective and objective measures, and in both groups, around 25% of individual differences in this correlation (i.e. in emotion-relevant interoception) were accounted for by self-reported alexithymia. In the context of the wider literature, this suggests that alexithymia involves a disruption in how physiological arousal modulates the subjective experience of feelings in those with and without a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. Since mindfulness-based therapies foster greater awareness of thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations, the findings also have implications for how the symptoms and consequences of alexithymia (e.g. anxiety) might be ameliorated. |
| spellingShingle | Gaigg, S Cornell, A Bird, G The psychophysiological mechanisms of alexithymia in autism spectrum disorder |
| title | The psychophysiological mechanisms of alexithymia in autism spectrum disorder |
| title_full | The psychophysiological mechanisms of alexithymia in autism spectrum disorder |
| title_fullStr | The psychophysiological mechanisms of alexithymia in autism spectrum disorder |
| title_full_unstemmed | The psychophysiological mechanisms of alexithymia in autism spectrum disorder |
| title_short | The psychophysiological mechanisms of alexithymia in autism spectrum disorder |
| title_sort | psychophysiological mechanisms of alexithymia in autism spectrum disorder |
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