title: Relationships between alexithymia, affect recognition, and empathy after traumatic brain injury.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine (1) alexithymia, affect recognition, and empathy differences in participants with and without traumatic brain injury (TBI); (2) the amount of affect recognition variance explained by alexithymia; and (3) the amount of empathy variance explained by alexithymia and affect recognition.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty adults with moderate-to-severe TBI; 60 age and gender-matched controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were evaluated for alexithymia (difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings, and externally-oriented thinking); facial and vocal affect recognition; and affective and cognitive empathy (empathic concern and perspective-taking, respectively).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants with TBI had significantly higher alexithymia; poorer facial and vocal affect recognition; and lower empathy scores. For TBI participants, facial and vocal affect recognition variances were significantly explained by alexithymia (12% and 8%, respectively); however, the majority of the variances were accounted for by externally-oriented thinking alone. Affect recognition and alexithymia significantly accounted for 16.5% of cognitive empathy. Again, the majority of the variance was primarily explained by externally-oriented thinking. Affect recognition and alexithymia did not explain affective empathy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results suggest that people who have a tendency to avoid thinking about emotions (externally-oriented thinking) are more likely to have problems recognizing others' emotions and assuming others' points of view. Clinical implications are discussed.
authors: Indiana University School of Medicine, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana, Indianapolis (Drs Neumann, Malec, and Hammond); and Department of Applied Linguistics, Brock University, St Catharines, Ontario, Canada (Dr Zupan).
authors: Dawn
authors: D
authors: Neumann
authors: Barbra
authors: B
authors: Zupan
authors: James F
authors: JF
authors: Malec
authors: Flora
authors: F
authors: Hammond
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D004645:Empathy; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012016:Reference Values; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception; D056345:Theory of Mind; D055815:Young Adult