title: Emotion recognition deficits in eating disorders are explained by co-occurring alexithymia.
abstract: Previous research has yielded inconsistent findings regarding the ability of individuals with eating disorders (EDs) to recognize facial emotion, making the clinical features of this population hard to determine. This study tested the hypothesis that where observed, emotion recognition deficits exhibited by patients with EDs are due to alexithymia, a co-occurring condition also associated with emotion recognition difficulties. Ability to recognize facial emotion was investigated in a sample of individuals with EDs and varying degrees of co-occurring alexithymia, and an alexithymia-matched control group. Alexithymia, but not ED symptomology, was predictive of individuals' emotion recognition ability, inferred from tolerance to high-frequency visual noise. This relationship was specific to emotion recognition, as neither alexithymia nor ED symptomology was associated with ability to recognize facial identity. These findings suggest that emotion recognition difficulties exhibited by patients with ED are attributable to alexithymia, and may not be a feature of EDs per se.
authors.affiliation: MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre , Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London , London WC2R 2LS, UK.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brewer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology , City University London , London EC1R 0JD, UK.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.affiliation: Section of Eating Disorders, Psychological Medicine , Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London , London WC2R 2LS, UK.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cardi
authors.affiliation: Section of Eating Disorders, Psychological Medicine , Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London , London WC2R 2LS, UK.
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Treasure
authors.affiliation: MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre , Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London , London WC2R 2LS, UK ; Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience , University College London , London WC1N 3AR, UK.
authors.forename: Geoffrey
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bird
keywords: alexithymia; eating disorders; emotions; face perception; facial expressions