Reduced facial mimicry as a correlate of an impaired emotional interaction in alexithymia?

社会关系中情感信号的感知和沟通是人际交往的功能性和适应性调节的关键能力。述情障碍这个术语指的是这种社交能力的损害。它涵盖了(1)识别自我和他人的情感状态的障碍，(2)将这些情感状态标记为离散的感觉，(3)在语言层面上交流它们。述情障碍作为一种正态分布的人格特质，与心理症状负荷相关。然而，这种结构与其他心理障碍（如类分裂型人格障碍、抑郁症、自闭症）是不同的。到目前为止，述情障碍与相互作用的个体之间通过面部表情和模仿来交换情感状态的能力之间的关系还没有得到深入的研究。计划研究的主要目标是确定与非述情者相比，述情者（TAS总得分> 61）是否更不容易受到自然面部情感表达引发的情绪感染。主要因变量为被试自身对学龄前儿童和成人动态呈现的情感表情面部（愤怒、悲伤、焦虑、厌恶、喜悦）的面部模仿。因此，面部模拟是在刺激开始后3秒内瓦楞肌和颧肌的面部肌电图活动（fEMG）来操作的。在实验过程中，将呈现在试点研究中验证的面部表情视频序列。每个视频序列从一个中性的面部表情开始，然后是一个动态增加到最大的情感表达的情感呈现。我们假设，与对照组（主效应组）相比，看动态面部表情视频序列的述情障碍受试者的fEMG反应通常会下降。由于Kindchenschema的进化意义，进一步假设即使在述情障碍受试者中，婴儿面孔的情感表达模仿的呈现也比成人面孔引起更强的fEMG反应（主要效应Kindchenschema）。这些假设将在方差分析模型中进行研究。在面对面互动中受损的面部模仿，特别是在述情障碍患者中，可能代表一种社会压力源，但也是心理治疗方法的目标。这种联系可能有助于在新的治疗和预防方法的发展创新的观点。治疗聚焦和促进模仿反应和相关的自我意识可能是改善述情障碍个体社会情绪能力的一个有希望的起点。这也可能对与述情障碍相关的心身症状负荷产生积极影响。

Perception and communication of affective signals within social relations represent a crucial competence of a functional and adaptive regulation of interpersonal interaction. The term alexithymia refers to an impairment of this social ability. It covers the impairment (1) to recognize affective states in the self and in others, (2) to label these affective states as discrete feelings and (3) to communicate them on a linguistic level. As a normally distributed personality trait, alexithymia is associated with psychological symptom load. However, this construct is distinguishable from other psychological disorders (e.g. schizoid personality disorder, depression, autism). Up to now, the relationship between alexithymia and the ability to exchange affective states by facial expression and mimicry between interacting individuals has not been focused intensively. The main target of the planned study is to determine whether alexithymic persons (TAS sum score > 61) are less susceptible for emotional contagion triggered by naturalistic facial affect expression compared to non alexithymic controls. The main dependent variable is the subjects own facial mimicry in response to dynamically presented affect expressive faces (anger, grief, anxiety, disgust, joy) of preschool children and adults. Therefore, the facial mimicry is operationalized as facial EMG activity (fEMG) of the m. corrugator and m. zygomaticus within a timeframe of 3 seconds after stimulus onset. In the experimental procedure, video sequences of facial affect expressions, validated in pilot studies, will be presented. Each video sequence starts with a neutral facial expression followed by an affect presentation dynamically increasing to the maximal affect expression. It is assumed that alexithymic subjects who are exposed to video sequences of dynamic facial affect expressions will show in general a decreased fEMG response compared to the control group (main effect Group). Due to the evolutionary significance of the Kindchenschema it is further assumed that the presentation of affect expressive mimicry of infantile faces induces a stronger fEMG response compared to adult faces even in alexithymic subjects (main effect Kindchenschema). These assumptions will be investigated within variance analytic models. An impaired facial mimicry within face to face interaction, especially in alexithymic persons, could represent a social stressor but also a target for psychotherapeutic approaches. This association may contribute to innovative perspectives in the development of new treatments and preventive approaches. Therapeutic focusing and promoting mimic responsitivity and the associated self-awareness could be a promising starting point improving socioemotional abilities of alexithymic individuals. This could also have a positive effect on the psychosomatic symptom load associated with alexithymic impairment.