title: Blunted feelings: alexithymia is associated with a diminished neural response to speech prosody.
abstract: How we perceive emotional signals from our environment depends on our personality. Alexithymia, a personality trait characterized by difficulties in emotion regulation has been linked to aberrant brain activity for visual emotional processing. Whether alexithymia also affects the brain's perception of emotional speech prosody is currently unknown. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the impact of alexithymia on hemodynamic activity of three a priori regions of the prosody network: the superior temporal gyrus (STG), the inferior frontal gyrus and the amygdala. Twenty-two subjects performed an explicit task (emotional prosody categorization) and an implicit task (metrical stress evaluation) on the same prosodic stimuli. Irrespective of task, alexithymia was associated with a blunted response of the right STG and the bilateral amygdalae to angry, surprised and neutral prosody. Individuals with difficulty describing feelings deactivated the left STG and the bilateral amygdalae to a lesser extent in response to angry compared with neutral prosody, suggesting that they perceived angry prosody as relatively more salient than neutral prosody. In conclusion, alexithymia may be associated with a generally blunted neural response to speech prosody. Such restricted prosodic processing may contribute to problems in social communication associated with this personality trait.
authors.affiliation: Neuroimaging Center, Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, LIBC Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, LUCL Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, and Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The NetherlandsNeuroimaging Center, Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, LIBC Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, LUCL Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, and Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands kgoerlich@ukaachen.de.
authors.forename: Katharina Sophia
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Goerlich-Dobre
authors.affiliation: Neuroimaging Center, Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, LIBC Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, LUCL Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, and Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The NetherlandsNeuroimaging Center, Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, LIBC Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, LUCL Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, and Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jurriaan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Witteman
authors.affiliation: Neuroimaging Center, Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, LIBC Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, LUCL Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, and Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The NetherlandsNeuroimaging Center, Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, LIBC Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, LUCL Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, and Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Niels O
authors.initials: NO
authors.lastname: Schiller
authors.affiliation: Neuroimaging Center, Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, LIBC Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, LUCL Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, and Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The NetherlandsNeuroimaging Center, Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, LIBC Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, LUCL Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, and Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Vincent J P
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: van Heuven
authors.affiliation: Neuroimaging Center, Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, LIBC Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, LUCL Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, and Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The NetherlandsNeuroimaging Center, Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, LIBC Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, LUCL Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, and Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aleman
authors.affiliation: Neuroimaging Center, Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, LIBC Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, LUCL Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, and Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Sander
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Martens
mesh_terms: D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: alexithymia; amygdala; emotional prosody; inferior frontal gyrus; superior temporal gyrus