The psychophysiological mechanisms of alexithymia in autism spectrum disorder
The psychophysiological mechanisms of alexithymia in autism spectrum disorder
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DOI：
10.1177/1362361316667062
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发表时间：
2018-02-01
期刊：
影响因子：
5.2
通讯作者：
Bird, Geoffrey
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gaigg, Sebastian B.;Cornell, Anna S. F.;Bird, Geoffrey
越来越多的证据表明，共同发生的述情障碍的基础上的几个方面的社会情感困难的共同自闭症谱系障碍的个人。然而，所涉及的机制仍然知之甚少，因为测量述情障碍在很大程度上依赖于自我报告。为了解决这个问题，仔细匹配的自闭症谱系障碍患者和对照组的参与者对70张情感诱导图片进行了主观体验，同时客观地监测皮肤电导反应。结果表明，这些主观和客观的措施之间的可靠的相关性，在这两个群体中，约25%的个体差异，这种相关性（即在情绪相关的内感受）占自我报告的述情障碍。在更广泛的文献背景下，这表明述情障碍涉及生理唤醒如何调节那些有和没有诊断为自闭症谱系障碍的人的主观感受的破坏。由于基于正念的疗法可以促进对思想，感觉和身体感觉的更大意识，这些发现也对如何改善述情障碍（例如焦虑）的症状和后果具有影响。
Accumulating evidence indicates that co-occurring alexithymia underlies several facets of the social-emotional difficulties common in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. The mechanisms involved, however, remain poorly understood because measuring alexithymia relies heavily on self-report. To address this issue, carefully matched groups of individuals with autism spectrum disorder and comparison participants rated 70 emotion-inducing pictures on subjectively experienced arousal while skin conductance responses were monitored objectively. The results demonstrated reliable correlations between these subjective and objective measures, and in both groups, around 25% of individual differences in this correlation (i.e. in emotion-relevant interoception) were accounted for by self-reported alexithymia. In the context of the wider literature, this suggests that alexithymia involves a disruption in how physiological arousal modulates the subjective experience of feelings in those with and without a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. Since mindfulness-based therapies foster greater awareness of thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations, the findings also have implications for how the symptoms and consequences of alexithymia (e.g. anxiety) might be ameliorated.