TY - JOUR A1 - Pollatos, Olga A1 - Gramann, Klaus T1 - Electrophysiological evidence of early processing deficits in alexithymia JF - Biological psychology N2 - 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. KW - Evoked potentials KW - Emotions KW - Alexithymia KW - Perceived arousal KW - Unpleasant stimuli KW - IAPS Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.02.016 SN - 0301-0511 VL - 87 IS - 1 SP - 113 EP - 121 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER -