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Alexithymia is a clinically relevant personality trait characterized by deficits in recognizing and verbalizing one’s emotions. It has been shown that alexithymia is related to an impaired perception of external emotional stimuli, but previous research focused on emotion perception from faces and voices. Since sensory modalities represent rather distinct input channels it is important to know whether alexithymia also affects emotion perception in other modalities and expressive domains. The objective of our review was to summarize and systematically assess the literature on the impact of alexithymia on the perception of emotional (or hedonic) stimuli in music, odor, taste, and touch. Eleven relevant studies were identified. On the basis of the reviewed research, it can be preliminary concluded that alexithymia might be associated with deficits in the perception of primarily negative but also positive emotions in music and a reduced perception of aversive taste. The data available on olfaction and touch are inconsistent or ambiguous and do not allow to draw conclusions. Future investigations would benefit from a multimethod assessment of alexithymia and control of negative affect. Multimodal research seems necessary to advance our understanding of emotion perception deficits in alexithymia and clarify the contribution of modality-specific and supramodal processing impairments.

<p>This thesis examines how ERP responses to music provide an index of emotion in control, alexithymic, depressed and depressed alexithymic individuals using a musical affective priming task, with the objective being its clinical application to assess emotion in brain injured patients. Participants listened to pairs of music primes and music targets (music-music paradigm) and word targets (music-word paradigm) to mentally decide if they matched or not according to emotional valence (happy, sad). Responses manifested in the N300 (emotional categorization), P300 (emotional recognition) and N400 (emotional meaning) ERP components, with larger and more differentiated responses for the music-word paradigm indicating a less automatic nature than the music-music paradigm. Alexithymic individuals showed disrupted responses for all components for sad word targets, indicating a sequence of disconnects producing their decreased awareness of and difficulty with regulating emotion. Depressed participants displayed an emotional negativity bias for sad word targets in the P300 and N400, attributable to difficulty disengaging (cognitive rumination), reflecting how emotional deficits affect awareness. Disrupted P300 and N400 responses in the depressed alexithymic individuals were isolated to alexithymia rather than the emotional negativity bias. Specific processing deficits of happy music targets found only in depressed alexithymic individuals demonstrate how alexithymia increases the severity of depression. Although depression effects are more pervasive, alexithymia modifies depressive effects in emotional regulation. The P300 was most reliably seen in depression, and alexithymia to a lesser extent. Therefore, ERP responses to music can effectively and covertly measure emotion and different levels of automaticity, alexithymia and depression. This thesis is the first to demonstrate: 1) how music conveys emotion in a pure musical context (music-music); 2) musical emotion perception in alexithymia, depression and depressed alexithymia; 3) an effective non-verbal measure of emotion for assessing emotional states in brain injured populations.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Although research has shown that poor emotion awareness is significantly related to disordered eating, the majority of studies that have examined this relation have significant limitations. These limitations include lack of longitudinal data, little focus on the specificity of emotion awareness in predicting disordered eating versus general emotional distress, little focus on the roles of other emotional deficits, such as emotional avoidance and fear of emotions, an over-reliance on self-report data, a lack of research with sub-clinical populations, and a failure to examine possible interactions between emotion awareness and other known risk factors for disordered eating. The current study addressed some of these limitations by using a two-time point, prospective design to examine a variety of emotional processes, stress, dysfunctional appearance beliefs, and disordered eating in undergraduate females. At Time 1, participants (N = 187), ages 18-22, completed measures of emotion awareness, emotional avoidance, fear of emotions, depression, anxiety, dysfunctional appearance beliefs, life events/stress, and disordered eating. Three months later, at Time 2, participants (N = 158) repeated many of the Time 1 measures, in addition to completing a measure that assessed the frequency and subjective negative impact of life events experienced during the prospective period. Six main hypotheses were tested. As expected, emotion awareness was stable over time and was related to disordered eating cross-sectionally. Contrary to expectations, emotion awareness did not predict disordered eating prospectively, emotion awareness related more to depression and anxiety than to disordered eating, emotion awareness did not relate to disordered eating cross-sectionally or prospectively once emotional avoidance and fear of emotions were controlled, emotion awareness did not interact with life events/stress and dysfunctional appearance beliefs to predict disordered eating cross-sectionally or prospectively, and the ability to repair mood did not mediate the relation between emotion awareness and disordered eating. A notable finding involved the lack of specificity of emotion awareness to disordered eating versus depression and anxiety. In fact, depression and anxiety fully mediated the relation between poor emotion awareness and disordered eating. Following a review of the results, strengths and limitations, as well as clinical implications and potential future research directions are discussed. / Psychology

Föreliggande studie är en utvärdering av behandlingsmetoden Affektskola inom ramen för vuxenpsykiatrin. Syftet är att undersöka vilka effekter Affektskola har med avseende på psykisk ohälsa och affektmedvetenhet samt hur bestående dessa effekter är. Deltagarna är 13 patienter inom den psykiatriska öppenvården med varierande problematik, inkluderandes förstämningssyndrom, ADHD samt personlighetsstörningar. Mätningar med mätinstrumenten TAS-20, HADS samt KASAM-29 genomfördes vid fyra tillfällen; Affektskolas start, Affektskolans avslut samt åtta respektive sexton veckor efter avslut. Utöver detta distribuerades vid sista mättillfället ett kompletterande frågeformulär gällande subjektiv upplevelse av effekterna av Affektskolan. Resultaten tyder på tendenser till en ökad affektmedvetenhet samt en minskad psykisk ohälsa och att dessa effekter består och ökar över tid. Deltagarna rapporterar en måttlig grad av subjektivt upplevd förändring gällande känslor respektive psykisk hälsa samt att de i måttlig till stor grad tillskrev Affektskola dessa förändringar. Sammantaget indikerar studien att Affektskola har en positiv effekt på affektmedvetenhet och psykisk ohälsa. / The present study is an evaluation of the treatment method Affect School in the context of adult psychiatry. The aim is to examine the effects of the Affect School on mental ill-health and affect consciousness, and how stable these effects are. The participants consist of 13 patients in psychiatric outpatient care with varying disorders, including mood disorders, ADHD and personality disorders. Assessments with the instruments TAS-20, HADS and KASAM-29 were performed on four occasions; before the start and by the completion of the Affect School and eight and sixteen weeks after completion. At the end of the study, an additional questionnaire regarding subjective experiences of the effect of the Affect School was distributed. The results indicate trends of increased affect consciousness as well as reduced mental ill-health and that these effects are stable and increases over time. Participants report a moderate degree of subjectively perceived change regarding emotions and mental health, and that they attributed Affect School these changes in a moderate to large extent. Overall, the study indicates that the Affect School has a positive effect on affect consciousness and mental health.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:29:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Glaucia Mitsuko Ataka.pdf: 3815598 bytes, checksum: db7202d040a89d7913489ce6649b23ca (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-02-06 / Pontif?cia Universidade Cat?lica de Campinas / The study aimed at the evaluation of depression, alexithymia, quality of life and personality styles of people with idiopathic Parkinson s disease. The sample of 100 participants was integrated by 41% men and 59% women, from 38 to 90 years old, aged from 50 to 79 years old (Mo=75 and 77 years old); 72,45% are pensioners; 68% are originally from Sao Paulo State; 53% with schooling from 8 years or more. The majority of the participants (59%) had the disease for 6 years and was classified as the 2nd stage of Parkinson s disease (80% of them). Participants were evaluated according to the following instruments: Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS), Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ- 39) and Millon Inventory of Personality Styles (MIPS). The average score of BDI was 11,8 (SD= 7,4), summing up 47% of the people with light or moderate depression. Their common symptoms were lack of pleasure, irritation, insomnia, fatigue, lack of interest in sex, concern with health and with the impossibility of working. Most of the people were scored as alexithymic (59%). Quality of life scores had an average total of 27,34 (SD=14,29). The highest scores were physical discomfort (M=32,4, SD=23,7); activities of daily living (M=31,8, DP=20,4) and mobility (M=31,0, DP=22,5). As for personality styles, 80% and more present strong characteristics called opennesss, protection, sensation, introversion, reflection, affectivity, systematization and firmness. The structure equation modeling (SEM), analyzed through Partial Least Square (PLS), showed that depression contributes significantly to quality of life, alexithymia and the dimensions of cognitive and interpersonal behaviors (evaluated by MIPS). Results were discussed considering the multidetermination of depression in Parkinson s disease and the importance of the intervention in depression focusing the improvement of quality of life. A heuristic proposal involves the theoretical model about a multidetermination of the depression in the illness as a model obtained in this study following PLS. The limitations imposed by the homogeneity of some characteristics of the sample are discussed and new studies are suggested, including samples with different characteristics and on psychotherapy interventions that consider psychological disorders and the positive aspects (adaptive resources) identified in this research. / O objetivo foi avaliar a associa??o entre depress?o, alexitimia, qualidade de vida e estilos de personalidade de pessoas com Doen?a de Parkinson, atendidos na Associa??o Brasil- Parkinson. A amostra, de 100 participantes diagnosticados com Doen?a de Parkinson idiop?tica, ficou composta por 59% de homens e 41% de mulheres, com idades entre 38 e 90 anos, concentradas nas faixas et?rias entre 50 e 79 anos (Mo= 75 e 77 anos). A maioria ? aposentada (72,45%) e natural de S?o Paulo (68%), com escolaridade de 8 anos ou mais (53%). O tempo de curso da doen?a concentrou-se em at? 6 anos (59%) e a maioria encontra- se no Est?gio II da doen?a (80%). Os instrumentos de auto-relato utilizados foram a Escala de Depress?o de Beck (BDI), Escala de Alexitimia de Toronto (TAS), Parkinson s Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39) e Invent?rio de Estilos de Personalidade de Millon (MIPS), aplicados individualmente. O escore m?dio do BDI foi de 11,8 (DP=7,4), tendo sido 47% das pessoas classificadas com depress?o leve ou moderada. Os sintomas de depress?o mais referidos foram: falta de prazer, irrita??o, dificuldade com o sono, cansa?o, falta de interesse em sexo, preocupa??o com a sa?de e preocupa??o em n?o poder trabalhar. A maioria das pessoas foi classificada como alexit?mica (59%). Quanto ? qualidade de vida, o escore total m?dio foi de 27,34 (DP=14,29), sendo que as dimens?es com escores mais altos foram desconforto corporal (M=32,4, DP=23,7); atividades da vida di?ria (M= 31,8, DP= 20,4) e mobilidade (M= 31,0, DP=22,5). Quanto ao estilo de personalidade, 80% ou mais da amostra apresentou como caracter?sticas fortes: abertura, prote??o, sensa??o, introvers?o, reflex?o, afetividade, sistematiza??o e firmeza. O modelo de equa??es estruturais (SEM), analisado atrav?s do Partial Least Square (PLS) apresentou a depress?o como a vari?vel preditora da qualidade de vida, da alexitimia e das dimens?es modos cognitivos e condutas interpessoais (estas avaliadas pelo MIPS). Os resultados foram discutidos considerando a multidetermina??o da depress?o na Doen?a de Parkinson e a import?ncia da interven??o sobre a depress?o com o objetivo de melhorar a qualidade de vida. ? proposta uma heur?stica para a compreens?o da multidetermina??o da Doen?a de Parkinson e do modelo obtido pela aplica??o do PLS. S?o discutidas as limita??es impostas pela homogeneidade de algumas caracteristicas apresentadas pela amostra e sugeridos novos estudos em amostras com caracter?sticas diferentes e sobre interven??es psicoterap?uticas que considerem tanto os dist?rbios psicol?gicos quanto os aspectos positivos (recursos adaptativos) identificados no presente estudo.

Les troubles émotionnels sont considérés comme fréquents dans la sclérose en plaque (SEP) et ont été généralement étudiés par la reconnaissance des émotions faciales. En revanche, l’expérience émotionnelle a été très peu analysée dans la SEP, et ses corrélats neuro-anatomiques jamais explorés. De plus, l’intrication des difficultés émotionnelles avec d’autres variables cliniques reste mal comprise, notamment l’alexithymie, qui est fréquente dans cette pathologie et qui est susceptible de modifier le traitement émotionnel.Le but de cette étude est de préciser les difficultés émotionnelles dans la SEP, dans ses composantes de reconnaissance et d’expérience émotionnelle positive et négative. II s’agit également d’explorer les corrélats neuro-fonctionnels de l’expérience émotionnelle dans la SEP en général, et chez des patientes atteintes de SEP alexithymique versus non alexithymique en particulier. Une première étude nous a permis de confirmer l’atteinte de la capacité à reconnaitre les émotions faciales dans un groupe de patientes SEP et ceci de façon plus marquée pour les émotions négatives. Cette étude a aussi mis en avant une expérience émotionnelle très variable chez nos patientes avec une intensification du vécu subjectif plaisant et déplaisant. A travers une deuxième étude en imagerie par résonance magnétique fonctionnelle (IRMf), nous avons montré que cette variabilité de l’expérience émotionnelle était sous-tendue par une grande hétérogénéité des réponses hémodynamiques de nos patientes au niveau de structures cérébrales connues pour leur implication dans la construction du ressenti subjectif plaisant et déplaisant. Des analyses complémentaires en imagerie de diffusion soutiennent l’idée que ces anomalies fonctionnelles soient liées à une atteinte structurelle notamment au niveau des boucles limbiques et des structures fronto-insulaires qui forment le réseau de saillance. Une troisième étude a mis en avant un effet spécifique de l’alexithymie dans les activations cérébrales fonctionnelles des émotions positives, notamment de l’insula, tandis que les émotions négatives semblent être influencées par la maladie et l’alexithymie comorbide. Les analyses en imagerie de diffusion s’avèrent, pour leur part, indépendantes du statut alexithymique. Ainsi les troubles émotionnels dans la SEP concernent tant la capacité à reconnaitre les émotions chez l’autre qu’une modification de leur propre expérience émotionnelle positive et négative. L’alexithymie, dont la comorbidité est fréquente dans la SEP, accentue la présence de tels troubles au même titre que le phénomène lésionnel inhérent à la SEP. Considérant l’implication que de tels troubles peuvent avoir pour les patients et leur entourage familial, social et professionnel, il semble important de prendre en compte ces aspects pour une meilleure prise en charge de cette pathologie. / Emotional disorders in multiple sclerosis (MS) are frequently described as difficulties in recognizing facial expression. Yet, emotional experience is insufficiently studied in MS, and its neurobiological correlates stays never explored. Moreover, interaction between emotional disorder and other variable remains little documented, especially for alexithymia, a very frequent trouble in MS which could also cause emotional disturbances. The scope of this work is to explore positive and negative emotions in MS, with a focus on the recognition and experience dimensions. Concerning the emotional experience, brain functional activation correlates are also explored in MS overall, and in alexithymics versus non alexithymics MS subjects especially. A first study confirmed the difficulty for MS patient in recognizing facial emotions, and those difficulties were more marked for negative emotions. This study also highlights a more scattered emotional experience in MS, with a global exacerbation of their pleasant as well as unpleasant emotional feeling. A second study with fMRI shows that this scattered emotional experience was sustained by more brain functional variability during the emotional task. It takes place in brain structures known for their implication for the subjective feeling construction. Further diffusion imaging analyses support the view of a brain dysconnexion in those functional anomalies centred on limbic loop and fronto-insula network, also called salience network. A third study highlights a specific contribution of alexithymia in brain activity for hedonics experience, centred on insula deactivations whereas anhedonics experience seems to be influenced by the diseases and comorbid alexithymia. Brain diffusion analyses were independent of the alexithymia status. Thus, MS patients show difficulties in identifying emotion and have modifications of their own pleasant and unpleasant emotional experience. The frequent comorbid alexithymia in MS exacerbates those troubles in the same way as the lesion phenomenon of MS. Considering the implications that emotional disorders may have for MS patients as well as their familial, social and professional entourage, it seems essential to take these aspects into account for a better management of MS.

Dans les métiers de l’investissement financier, le risque est un outil de travail quotidien et reconnu. Tout individu est ainsi amené à déterminer quels risques valent la peine d’être pris, ou quelle perte vaut la peine d’être risquée. Plus le risque pris est important, plus grands seront les bénéfices – ou pertes – encourus. Ces caractéristiques, le monde de l’investissement financier les partage avec les sports à hauts risques, ou sports extrêmes. Malgré cette similitude, la littérature scientifique issue de chacun des ces domaines adopte une perspective qui lui est propre afin d’expliquer le risque et la prise de risques. Alors que la recherche en finance s’attarde avant tout à la quantification des risques, la littérature sportive s’intéresse davantage à la personnalité des pratiquants de sports extrêmes, répondant donc aux questions : Qui prend des risques ? Pourquoi ? De récentes études ont avancé que les traits de personnalité du narcissisme et de l’alexithymie contribuent significativement à expliquer la tendance à la prise de risques dans le sport. Par le biais de six études successives et complémentaires, ce travail de thèse a pour objectif d’élargir ces résultats par la mise en évidence des relations entre les traits narcissiques et alexithymiques, et la prise de risques financiers / In the world of financial investment, risk is recognised as a daily working tool. Individuals are constantly asked to determine whether risks are worthwhile, in other words whether the potential associated loss is worth risking. The higher the risk, the higher the potential wins or losses. These characteristics are shared between the world of financial investment and high-risk – or extreme – sports. Notwithstanding their similarities, scientific studies conducted within each of these domains have adopted distinct understandings of risk and risk-taking. Whilst research in finance aims to quantify and control risk, the sport literature is rather more interested in the personality of high-risk sport partakers. The latter thus aims to answer questions such as who takes risks and why. Recent studies have highlighted the significant roles played by narcissism and alexithymia, two stable personality traits. Through six successive and complementary studies, the present thesis aims to broaden these results by uncovering the links between both narcissistic and alexithymic personality traits and financial risk-taking.

L’objectif principal de cette thèse est de comprendre l’adaptation psychophysiologique des individus au stress aigu et chronique et l’influence des différences individuelles. Dans ce but nous avons mené deux grandes études, sur le stress aigu et chronique respectivement. Dans la première expérience, nous présentons un protocole d’induction de stress aigu, une tâche de parler en public, qui a été efficace pour provoquer le stress psychosocial. Nous avons ensuite étudié l’adaptation au stress et la performance dans la tâche de parler en public de façon multidisciplinaire (i.e., psychologique, physiologique et comportementale). Nous avons mis en évidence que les mauvaises performances dans cette tâche étaient associées principalement avec les traits de personnalité (i.e., trait d’anxiété), les émotions, l’évaluation cognitive et le coping. De plus, nous avons mis en évidence un modèle de médiation montrant que le trait d’anxiété est lié aux mauvaises performances indirectement à travers le coping, indiquant un rôle important des capacités de gestion du stress. Finalement, nous avons trouvé que les déficits de régulation émotionnelle, comme l’alexithymie, étaient associés avec une augmentation significative de l’activité HPA sur le cortisol suggérant que l’alexithymie module la réponse physiologique du stress. Dans la seconde partie, nous avons étudié les conséquences du stress chronique à travers les problèmes de conduites alimentaires sur 675 étudiants Français et Chinois. Les résultats montrent un effet de médiation sur la relation négative entre un attachement parental sécurisé et les problèmes de conduite alimentaire à travers l’alexithymie et le neuroticisme. De plus, bien qu’une prévalence plus élevée ait été observée dans la population chinoise par rapport à la population française, nos résultats montrent que les conduites alimentaires problématiques liées au stress sont un problème psychologique général plutôt que culturel. Cette thèse a des implications pratiques puisqu’ elle propose un protocole d’induction au stress aigu qui peut être utilisé à l’entraînement. En apportant une meilleure compréhension des facteurs de risque dans les réponses au stress, il sera possible d’aider les individus à mieux faire face au stress et améliorer leur bien-être dans des situations de performance ou dans des pathologies liées au stress. / The primary objective of this thesis is to understand the psychophysiological adaptation of individuals to acute and chronic stress and how individual differences influence it. For this aim, we conducted two large studies with regards to acute and chronic stress, respectively. In the first experimentation, we presented a laboratory induced stress protocol (a public speaking task), which proved successful in eliciting acute psychosocial stressor. Next, we took into account the multidisciplinary assessment (i.e., psychological, physiological and behavioural) to study stress responses and performance. We found that the failure of stress performance was associated mainly with personality trait (i.e., trait anxiety), emotions, cognitive appraisals and coping. Moreover, we suggested a mediation model showing that trait anxiety linked to poor performance indirectly through coping, indicating an important role of the stress management ability. Finally, we found that emotion regulation deficit, i.e., alexithymia was associated with significant increased HPA activity on cortisol, suggesting alexithymia modulate physiological stress response. In the second part, we studied the chronic stress consequences on disordered eating in a total of 675 university student athletes in China and France. Results supported a mediation effect on the negative relationship between the secure parental attachment and disordered eating through alexithymia and neuroticism. Furthermore, despite a higher prevalence was observed in the Chinese sample than in French, our results suggested this stress-related eating behaviour was a general psychological problem rather than a cultural issue. This thesis has practical meanings in providing an acute stress protocol which can be put into training. By understanding risk factors for stress responses, performance and stress-related illness, we may indeed help individual to cope better with stress and increase their well-being.