@article{PollatosGramann2012,
  author    = {Pollatos, Olga and Gramann, Klaus},
  title     = {Attenuated modulation of brain activity accompanies emotion regulation deficits in alexithymia},
  series = {Psychophysiology : journal of the Society for Psychophysiological Research},
  volume    = {49},
  journal   = {Psychophysiology : journal of the Society for Psychophysiological Research},
  number    = {5},
  publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell},
  address   = {Hoboken},
  issn      = {0048-5772},
  doi       = {10.1111/j.1469-8986.2011.01348.x},
  pages     = {651 -- 658},
  year      = {2012},
  abstract  = {The personality trait alexithymia has been associated with deficits in emotion regulation; nevertheless, experimental investigations on this research question are sparse. We investigated reappraisal as one emotion regulation strategy in 44 healthy participants with high (HDA) versus low (LDA) degrees of alexithymia. High density EEG and spatiotemporal current density reconstruction were used to characterize the time course of emotion regulation and to identify brain regions involved. Main results were that reappraisal was accompanied by reduced arousal and significant amplitude reduction of P3 and slow wave in the LDA group only. In contrast to the LDA group, reappraisal was not associated with an increase of activation in fusiform gyrus and inferior temporal gyrus in the HDA group. We demonstrate profound deficits in emotion regulation, which might contribute to everyday problems of social functioning in alexithymia.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{PollatosGramann2011,
  author    = {Pollatos, Olga and Gramann, Klaus},
  title     = {Electrophysiological evidence of early processing deficits in alexithymia},
  series = {Biological psychology},
  volume    = {87},
  journal   = {Biological psychology},
  number    = {1},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  address   = {Amsterdam},
  issn      = {0301-0511},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.02.016},
  pages     = {113 -- 121},
  year      = {2011},
  abstract  = {Alexithymia describes difficulties to identify and describe one's emotions. Previous research focused on difficulties associated with the later processing stages of appraisal in alexithymia. We tested whether early processing deficits are apparent in alexithymic persons and whether these abnormalities contribute to later processing difficulties. 20 participants were selected and identified as either having high (HDA) or low (LDA) degrees of alexithymia. IAPS pictures were presented while EEG was recorded. For HDA subjects processing of emotional pictures was accompanied by reduced P1 amplitudes most pronounced for pleasant and neutral pictures. In response to unpleasant pictures the P3 amplitudes were reduced. These amplitude modulations were predicted only by one alexithymia facet. P1 amplitudes systematically covaried with P3 amplitudes supporting the assumption that deficits in early emotional processing contribute to later processing deficits.},
  language  = {en}
}