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

在社会关系中对情感信号的感知和交流代表了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，(2)将这些情感状态标记为离散的感觉，(3)在语言水平上进行交流。述情障碍作为一种正态分布的人格特征，与心理症状负荷有关。然而，这一概念与其他心理障碍(如分裂样人格障碍、抑郁症、自闭症)是不同的。到目前为止，述情障碍与通过面部表情和相互作用的个体之间的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关注。这项计划中的研究的主要目标是确定述情障碍者(TAS总分61)是否比非述情障碍者更不容易受到自然面部情感表情引发的情绪感染。主要因变量是被试对儿童和成人动态呈现的情绪表情(愤怒、悲伤、焦虑、厌恶、喜悦)做出的表情模仿。因此，在刺激开始后3秒的时间内，面部模仿被操作为波纹肌和颧肌的面部肌电活动(FEMG)。在实验过程中，将展示经过试点研究验证的面部表情视频序列。每个视频序列从中性的面部表情开始，然后是动态增加到最大情感表情的情感呈现。假设述情障碍受试者在观看动态面部表情的视频序列时，总体上表现出比对照组(主效应组)更弱的fEMG反应。由于Kindchensscha的进化意义，进一步假设婴儿面孔的情感表情模仿比成人面孔诱发更强的fEMG反应，即使在述情障碍受试者中也是如此(主效应KindchensChema)。这些假设将在方差分析模型中进行研究。面对面互动中的面部模仿受损，特别是在述情障碍患者中，可能代表着一种社会应激源，但也是心理治疗方法的目标。这种联系可能有助于以创新的视角开发新的治疗方法和预防方法。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的社会情绪能力的一个有前途的起点。这也可能对述情障碍相关的心身症状负荷有积极的影响。

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.