MORPHOSTRUCTURAL CEREBRAL FEATURES OF ALEXITHYMIA

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中利用 资源由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。子项目和 调查员(PI)可能从NIH的另一个来源获得了主要资金， 并因此可以在其他清晰的条目中表示。列出的机构是 该中心不一定是调查人员的机构。 背景： 述情障碍是一种表现为：1)难以识别和描述主观感受；2)难以区分情感唤起的感觉和身体感觉；3)想象力下降，表现为缺乏幻想；4)外向性思维方式，表现为倾向于关注外部事件而不是内部经验，描述事实和行为而不涉及情感；5)社会从众(Ntemah JC等人，1976；Taylor GJ等人，1991)。这些临床特征最初是由Sifneos(1973)在心身障碍患者中描述的，迄今为止被认为与更广泛的身体和精神障碍有关(Taylor GJ等人，1997)，除了在普通人群中被检测到是人格特征(Salminen JK等人，1999；Kokkonen P等人，2001)。对健康受试者的功能研究表明，述情障碍与前扣带回皮质、脑岛和内侧额叶皮质在情绪刺激精加工过程中的异常活动有关，这表明述情障碍患者额叶皮质区域功能障碍(Kano F等人，2003年；Lane RD等人，1998年；Berthoz S等人，2002年)。在最近的一项VBM研究中发现述情障碍与前扣带回、中回、前岛、眶前叶皮质和颞上沟的灰质(GM)体积变小有关(Borsci等人提交) 目标： 使用先进的神经成像工具研究与述情障碍相关的脑形态结构特征。 方法： 我们纳入了58名受试者(29名有述情障碍，29名没有述情障碍)。用多伦多述情障碍量表(TAS-20)评定述情障碍。受试者是从布雷西亚城市医院神经放射科接受脑部磁共振扫描的志愿者中挑选出来的连续的正常志愿者。所有受试者都接受了高分辨率的3D磁共振(MR)成像，多维评估包括心理和行为量表，以及神经学和神经心理学评估。在评估时，受试者没有任何神经或精神障碍的诊断。皮层模式匹配(CPM)将被用来更好地研究述情障碍受试者和非述情障碍受试者之间的皮质灰质(GM)差异。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Background: Alexithymia is a condition characterized by: 1) difficulty to identify and describe subjective feelings; 2) difficulty to distinguish between feelings and bodily sensations of emotional arousal; 3) reduced imaginative capacities, as evidenced by a paucity of fantasies; 4) an externally oriented thinking style, consisting in a tendency to focus on external events rather than inner experiences and to describe facts and actions without affective involvement; and 5) social conformity (Nemiah JC et al., 1976; Taylor GJ et al., 1991). These clinical features, originally described by Sifneos (1973) in patients with psychosomatic disorders, are to date considered to be related to a broader range of physical and psychiatric disorders (Taylor GJ et al., 1997), besides being detected in the general population as personality features (Salminen JK et al., 1999; Kokkonen P et al., 2001). Functional studies on healthy subjects showed an association between alexithymia and abnormal activity of anterior cingulate cortex, insula and medial-frontal cortex during emotional stimuli elaboration, indicating a dysfunction of frontal cortical regions in people with alexithymia (Kano F et al., 2003; Lane RD et al., 1998; Berthoz S et al., 2002). Alexithymia has been found related to smaller gray matter (GM) volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, middle temporal gyrus, anterior insula, orbitofrontal cortex and superior temporal sulcus in a recent VBM study (Borsci et al., submitted) Aim: To investigate morphostructural cerebral features associated to alexithymia using advanced neuroimaging tools. Methods: We included in the study 58 subjects (29 with and 29 without alexithymia). Alexithymia was assessed with the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Subjects were consecutive normal volunteers picked among those undergoing brain MR scan at the Neuroradiology Unit of the "Citt¿ di Brescia" Hospital, Brescia. All subjects had high resolution 3D magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and multidimensional assessment included psychological and behavioural scales, as well as neurological and neuropsychological evaluations. Subjects were free of any diagnosis of neurological or psychiatric disorders at the time of the evaluations. Cortical pattern matching (CPM) will be used to better investigate cortical gray matter (GM) differences between subjects with alexithymia and subjects without it.