Additional file 1 of Alexithymia and interpersonal problems in healthy young individuals

Additional file 1: Supplementary Table S1. Correlations of anxiety, depression, and verbal intelligence with IIP-D scales and interpersonal dimensions (IIP-D) (N = 200). Supplementary Table S2. Correlations between alexithymia scales (TAS-20) and IIP-D scales and interpersonal dimensions (IIP-D) for women (coefficient before the slash) and men (coefficient after the slash) (n = 100, respectively)

Sociodemographic characteristics, intelligence, and affectivity of study participants as a function of gender.

<p>MWT-B: Multiple choice vocabulary test; STAI-Trait: State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, trait version; BDI: Beck Depression Inventory.</p

Response latencies (in ms) to neutral mask faces as a function of prime and gender.

<p>Response latencies (in ms) to neutral mask faces as a function of prime and gender.</p

Table_1_Interpersonal problems and recognition of facial emotions in healthy individuals.DOCX

BackgroundRecognition of emotions in faces is important for successful social interaction. Results from previous research based on clinical samples suggest that difficulties in identifying threat-related or negative emotions can go along with interpersonal problems. The present study examined whether associations between interpersonal difficulties and emotion decoding ability can be found in healthy individuals. Our analysis was focused on two main dimensions of interpersonal problems: agency (social dominance) and communion (social closeness).Materials and methodsWe constructed an emotion recognition task with facial expressions depicting six basic emotions (happiness, surprise, anger, disgust, sadness, and fear) in frontal and profile view, which was administered to 190 healthy adults (95 women) with a mean age of 23.9 years (SD = 3.8) along with the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems, measures of negative affect and verbal intelligence. The majority of participants were university students (80%). Emotion recognition accuracy was assessed using unbiased hit rates.ResultsNegative correlations were observed between interpersonal agency and recognition of facial anger and disgust that were independent of participants’ gender and negative affect. Interpersonal communion was not related to recognition of facial emotions.DiscussionPoor identification of other people’s facial signals of anger and disgust might be a factor contributing to interpersonal problems with social dominance and intrusiveness. Anger expressions signal goal obstruction and proneness to engage in conflict whereas facial disgust indicates a request to increase social distance. The interpersonal problem dimension of communion appears not to be linked to the ability to recognize emotions from facial expressions.</p

Additional file 1 of Depressive symptoms and visual attention to others’ eyes in healthy individuals

Supplementary Material

DataSheet_1_Deployment of attention to facial expressions varies as a function of emotional quality—but not in alexithymic individuals.pdf

BackgroundAlexithymia is a risk factor for emotional disorders and is characterized by differences in automatic and controlled emotion processing. The multi-stimulus free-viewing task has been used to detect increased negative and reduced positive attentional biases in depression and anxiety. In the present eye-tracking study, we examined whether lexical emotional priming directs attention toward emotion-congruent facial expressions and whether alexithymia is related to impairments in lexical priming and spontaneous attention deployment during multiple face perception.Materials and methodsA free-viewing task with happy, fearful, angry, and neutral faces shown simultaneously was administered to 32 alexithymic and 46 non-alexithymic individuals along with measures of negative affect and intelligence. Face presentation was preceded by masked emotion words. Indices of initial orienting and maintenance of attention were analyzed as a function of prime or target category and study group.ResultsTime to first fixation was not affected by prime category or study group. Analysis of fixation duration yielded a three-way interaction. Alexithymic individuals exhibited no prime or target category effect, whereas non-alexithymic individuals showed a main effect of target condition, fixating happy faces longer than neutral and angry faces and fearful faces longer than angry faces.DiscussionOur results show evidence of attentional biases for positive and fearful social information in non-alexithymic individuals, but not in alexithymic individuals. The lack of spontaneous attentional preference for these social stimuli in alexithymia might contribute to a vulnerability for developing emotional disorders. Our data also suggest that briefly presented emotion words may not facilitate gaze orientation toward emotion-congruent stimuli.</p

Image_1_Deployment of attention to facial expressions varies as a function of emotional quality—but not in alexithymic individuals.tif

BackgroundAlexithymia is a risk factor for emotional disorders and is characterized by differences in automatic and controlled emotion processing. The multi-stimulus free-viewing task has been used to detect increased negative and reduced positive attentional biases in depression and anxiety. In the present eye-tracking study, we examined whether lexical emotional priming directs attention toward emotion-congruent facial expressions and whether alexithymia is related to impairments in lexical priming and spontaneous attention deployment during multiple face perception.Materials and methodsA free-viewing task with happy, fearful, angry, and neutral faces shown simultaneously was administered to 32 alexithymic and 46 non-alexithymic individuals along with measures of negative affect and intelligence. Face presentation was preceded by masked emotion words. Indices of initial orienting and maintenance of attention were analyzed as a function of prime or target category and study group.ResultsTime to first fixation was not affected by prime category or study group. Analysis of fixation duration yielded a three-way interaction. Alexithymic individuals exhibited no prime or target category effect, whereas non-alexithymic individuals showed a main effect of target condition, fixating happy faces longer than neutral and angry faces and fearful faces longer than angry faces.DiscussionOur results show evidence of attentional biases for positive and fearful social information in non-alexithymic individuals, but not in alexithymic individuals. The lack of spontaneous attentional preference for these social stimuli in alexithymia might contribute to a vulnerability for developing emotional disorders. Our data also suggest that briefly presented emotion words may not facilitate gaze orientation toward emotion-congruent stimuli.</p

Between-group differences in brain response to angry facial expression compared to neutral faces.

<p>Enhanced brain activations of repressors compared to sensitizers (MNI coordinates). The activations are significant at p<0.05, k = 50 (FDR corrected). Reader's right is subjects' right.</p

Brain regions with heightened activation of sensitizers compared to repressors in the neutral versus angry face contrast.

a<p>Brodmann areas.</p>b<p>L = left, R = right.</p>c<p>Coordinates of the maximal point of activation and the associated Z-values are shown. The activations are significant at p<0.05, k = 50 (FDR corrected).</p><p>Brain regions with heightened activation of sensitizers compared to repressors in the neutral versus angry face contrast.</p

Immediate (time 1) and delayed (time 2) recognition performance as a function of facial expression and coping style (number of correct recognitions (hits) and false alarms).

<p><b><i>Note: time 1 =  after 30 minutes; time 2 =  after 3 days.</i></b></p><p>Immediate (time 1) and delayed (time 2) recognition performance as a function of facial expression and coping style (number of correct recognitions (hits) and false alarms).</p