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Abstract:
The term alexithymia was coined by Sifneos (1973) to refer to
the marked inability to talk about feelings. The literature has
suggested a right hemisphere advantage (RHA) for emotion processing
in healthy individuals (e.g. Borod, 1993), and some have therefore
proposed that alexithymia is in part due to right hemisphere (RH)
dysfunction (e.g. Jessimer & Markham, 1997). The present study
tests both the normal RHA hypothesis of emotions and the RH
dysfunction hypothesis of alexithymia. METHODS: Thirty-one
right-handed undergraduates participated in a tachistoscopic
experiment. Their task was to decide whether a centrally presented
cartoon face expresses the same emotion as a subsequent lateralized
photograph of a face. Alexithymia was measured using the
self-report twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (Bagby et. al,
1994). RESULTS: There was a main effect of visual field (VF),
indicating a higher accuracy for the right VF (84.7%±1) than
for the left (77.8%±1). An Emotion X VF interaction revealed
a right VF advantage for "afraid," "angry," "ashamed," "happy," and
"surprised," but a left VF advantage for "sad." Finally, a Group X
VF interaction indicated a larger VF difference in non-alexithymics
(RVF=86%±1; LVF=77.4%±1) than in alexithymics
(RVF=83.3%±2; LVF=78.3%±2). CONCLUSIONS: These data
suggest that, contrary to previous reports, the left hemisphere may
be superior to the right in the perception of facial expressions.
Furthermore, alexithymia may be due to atypical lateralization,
rather than RH dysfunction, for emotion processing.
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