title: Alexithymia, interhemispheric transfer, and right hemispheric specialization: a critical review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  One neural model of alexithymia relates the condition to poor interhemispheric transfer, while another model associates it with a disturbance in right hemisphere activity.
  
  
  METHODS
  The available empirical evidence directly relating alexithymia to a deficit in interhemispheric transfer and/or in right hemisphere activity is critically reviewed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The interhemispheric transfer studies have related alexithymia to a deficit in transfer, but the nature and directionality of the transfer deficit have yet to be determined. Many of the hemispheric specialization studies do not relate alexithymia to a right hemisphere dysfunction. Shortcomings of these studies are reviewed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The hypothesis that alexithymia is related to a deficit in the right-to-left transfer of emotional information and to a right hemisphere impairment in emotion processing remains to be tested directly and definitively. Suggestions for future research are made.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563, USA.
authors.forename: Golnaz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tabibnia
authors.forename: Eran
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zaidel
mesh_terms: D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008606:Mental Processes