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Abstract: Extraversion/introversion is a basic dimension of personality that describes individual differences in social behavior and sensory sensitivity. Previous neuroimaging research exclusively relied on self reports for assessing personality traits. In recent years, implicit measures of personality have been developed that aim at assessing the implicit self-concept of personality and complement self report instruments which are thought to measure aspects of the explicit self-concept of personality. In the present study functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine automatic brain reactivity to facial expression as a function of both implicitly and explicitly measured extraversion in 30 healthy women. Sad, happy, and neutral faces were presented for 33 ms masked by neutral faces beside a no face control condition. Subjects evaluated the briefly shown neutral mask faces. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) and the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) were applied as measures of extraversion which were not correlated in our sample. IAT extraversion was negatively correlated with automatic reactivity of the caudate head, thalamus, and inferior frontal cortex to sad faces. NEO-FFI extraversion was negatively correlated with response of the inferior frontal cortex and putamen to sad faces. For masked happy faces, an inverse correlation of the IAT effect for extraversion with activation of the caudate head and superior parietal lobule was observed. NEO-FFI extraversion was inversely correlated with the response of the thalamus to happy faces. Neither NEO-FFI extraversion nor IAT effect were significantly related to brain response to masked neutral faces (compared to the no face condition). Taken together, a specific heightened responsivity of the fronto-striatal-thalamic circuit to facial emotions which are arousing stimuli might underlie introverts'' preference for avoiding social interactions. Research on the neurobiology of extraversion could benefit from the application of implicit in addition to explicit measurement instruments when automatic neural responses are investigated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Multistate outbreaks of Escherichia coli O157:H7 infection in 2005 and 2006 associated with fresh and especially minimally processed produce greatly escalated the application of rapid pathogen detection systems to safety management in this food category. Pathogen testing was rapidly integrated into preharvest qualification for field lots, incoming raw produce, or final product. The raw produce and final product were incorporated into test-and-hold programs, typically within a 10-h time frame. To enhance consumer safety and provide guidance for the industry, an assessment of selected kits in comparison to a culture-based method was undertaken. Four primary kits were compared: the Neogen Reveal, SDI RapidChek, BioControl GDS O157, and Qualicon BAX O157 MP. Nine different leafy greens were freshly harvested and inoculated with a five-isolate mixture of E. coli O157:H7 at 10 CFU/25 g of sample, and cultures were enriched following the specified protocol. The PCR method was most consistent for identifying the presence of the inoculated pathogen in the shortest period of time. For the red-pigmented leafy vegetables red butter lettuce, curly endive, red lettuce, and lollo rosa, 13, 38, 88, and 100% false-negative results, respectively, were obtained with the immunoassays, but PCR detection was minimally affected. Immunoassays were negatively affected by delays in achieving critical threshold populations during the allowed enrichment period. Leafy green type, temperature abuse, and preharvest environment were unlikely to affect the results of PCR-based kits. Findings strongly suggest that product testing systems using 8-h detection cutoffs may give false-negative results. These issues become very important in high-throughput testing and retest protocols for presumptive pathogen-positive lots of produce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to compare psychiatric morbidity and the course of posttraumatic stress, depression, and anxiety in two groups with severe complications during pregnancy, women after termination of late pregnancy (TOP) due to fetal anomalies and women after preterm birth (PRE). As control group women after the delivery of a healthy child were assessed. A consecutive sample of women who experienced a) termination of late pregnancy in the 2nd or 3rd-trimester (N = 62), or b) preterm birth (N = 43), or c) birth of a healthy child (N = 65) was investigated 14 days (T1), 6 months (T2), and 14 months (T3) after the event. At T1, 22.4% of the women after TOP were diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder compared to 18.5% women after PRE, and 6.2% in the control group. The corresponding values at T3 were 16.7%, 7.1%, and 0%. Shortly after the event, a broad spectrum of diagnoses was found; however, 14 months later only affective and anxiety disorders were diagnosed. Posttraumatic stress and clinician-rated depressive symptoms were highest in women after TOP. The short-term emotional reactions to TOP in late pregnancy due to fetal anomaly appear to be more intense than those to preterm birth. Both events can lead to severe psychiatric morbidity with a lasting psychological impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: In a previous study, we demonstrated that amygdala reactivity to masked negative facial emotions predicts negative judgmental bias in healthy subjects. In the present study, we extended the paradigm to a sample of 35 inpatients suffering from depression to investigate the effect of amygdala reactivity on automatic negative judgmental bias and clinical characteristics in depression. METHODS: Amygdala activity was recorded in response to masked displays of angry, sad and happy facial expressions by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging at 3 T. In a subsequent experiment, the patients performed an affective priming task that characterizes automatic emotion processing by investigating the biasing effect of subliminally presented emotional faces on evaluative ratings to subsequently presented neutral stimuli. RESULTS: Significant associations between (right) amygdala reactivity and automatic negative judgmental bias were replicated in our patient sample (r=-0.59, p<0.001). Further, negatively biased evaluative processing was associated with severity and longer course of illness (r=-0.57, p=0.001). CONCLUSION: Amygdala hyperactivity is a neural substrate of negatively biased automatic emotion processing that could be a determinant for a more severe disease course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to analyse the influence of the severity of depressive symptoms on different domains of cognitive function in the elderly. In a population-based cross-sectional study, 385 participants aged 65-83 years were interviewed with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and performed a standardized neuropsychological test assessing attention, memory, cognitive speed and motor function. Multivariate linear regression analyses revealed a significant effect of depressive symptoms on a single test (Stroop test 1) and two summary scores (memory and motor function). After full adjustment for education and Mini Mental State Examination, the memory score was partly attenuated. Stratified analysis showed that an increase in CES-D scores led to a larger decline of cognitive test results in participants with mild to moderate depressive symptoms, compared to those with a high degree of depressive symptoms. Our results suggest that depressive mood in older adults is primarily associated with decreased processing speed and motor functioning, but not executive control functions. According to our results depressive mood is not necessarily associated with memory deficits in older adults. Changes in depressive symptoms in milder forms of depressive mood are associated with a larger decline in cognitive function than in severer forms of depressive mood. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mini-Tn5 transposon mutagenesis of a soft-rotting isolate ofPseudomonas fluorescensstrain 123 produced six mutant phenotypes with altered pathogenicity and inability to produce a biosurfactant involved in dispersingP. fluorescenscells in a surface aqueous environment. The mutants isolated showedin vivogrowth characteristics identical to those of the wild type, but variations in their ability to reduce surface tension of water and to grow in liquid medium containing hexadecane. One of these mutants (EG3) with reduced pathogenicity on broccoli and cauliflower exhibited a restored pathogenic phenotype when complemented with a 7·1-kb segment ofP.fluorescensgenomic DNA. The loss of aqueous-surface-tension activity in mutants suggests that a biosurfactant may contribute to pathogenicity and enhance pathogen invasion of host tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Prelingually deaf persons usually gain only a rudimentary command of speech and prefer sign language to communicate within the deaf community without the handicap they experience in the hearing world. Maintaining social contact within this rather scattered community, however, requires higher degrees of social initiative and mobility. The aim of the present paper was to study the quantity and quality of social integration among a group of prelingually deaf schizophrenic patients (n = 49) and two control groups comprising prelingually deaf psychiatric but non-psychotic patients (n = 38) and hearing schizophrenic patients (n = 30), with account being taken of the special socialisation conditions of deaf persons and of their cultural standards and values.Method: Data were collected with the help of semi-structured interviews; with the deaf patients these were conducted in German sign language. Using rating procedures we assessed seven social support components, selected items from a history schedule for schizophrenia, and the probands' visual and verbal language skills.Results: The social networks of the two deaf groups were found to have larger gaps than those of the hearing schizophrenic patients, with significant differences being registered most clearly in the comparison between deaf schizophrenic and hearing schizophrenic patients. Comparison of the verbal and visual language skills of the two deaf groups revealed a substantial deficit among the deaf schizophrenics. Visual language skills were found to correlate more strongly than verbal language skills with the social support components.Conclusion: Prelingual deafness has a strong impact on the course of schizophrenia. In the long run, many of these patients belong to a "minority within a minority". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Alexithymia has been considered to have a negative influence on the course of symptoms in various psychiatric disorders. Only few studies examined in depressed patients whether alexithymia predicts the outcome of therapeutic interventions or the course of symptoms in naturalistic settings. Aims In the present prospective study, it was investigated whether alexithymia is associated with depressive symptoms after a multimodal inpatient treatment. Methods Forty-five inpatients suffering from acute major depression were examined in the initial phase of treatment and then again after seven weeks. Patients took part in a multimodal treatment program comprising psychodynamic-interactional oriented individual and group therapy. The majority of patients were taking antidepressants during study participation. To assess alexithymia and depressive symptoms, the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) and the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) were administered at baseline and follow-up. Results High scores in the Externally Oriented Thinking (EOT) facet of alexithymia at baseline predicted high severity of depressive symptoms at follow-up (for self-reported as well as observer-rated scores). This relationship was not confounded by initial depressive symptoms. Conclusions Inpatients suffering from major depression with a more pronounced external cognitive style might benefit less from multimodal inpatient treatment. Patients high on EOT could avoid reflecting on negative emotions. Psychological interventions might modify or account for alexithymic characteristics to improve the course of depressive symptoms in these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The left frontal cortex plays an important role in executive function and complex language processing inclusive of spoken language. The purpose of this work was to assess metabolite levels in the left and right prefrontal cortex and left anterior cingulum by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy and relate results to verbal intelligence (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale revised) in a sample of college-educated healthy volunteers (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [DLPFC]: n=52, 23 females, and left anterior cingulum: n=62, 22 females; age range: 20–75 years). In women only, N-acetylaspartate in the DLPFC and in the left anterior cingulate cortex was positively correlated with vocabulary scores. Our data support the hypothesis of existing gender differences regarding the involvement of the left frontal cortex in verbal processing as reflected in different correlations of specific metabolites with verbal scores. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Current California agricultural practices strive to comanage food safety and habitat conservation on farmland. However, the ecology of foodborne pathogens in wild bird populations, especially those avian species residing in proximity to fresh produce production fields, is not fully understood. In this repeated crosssectional study, avifauna within agricultural lands in California were sampled over 1 year. Feces, oral swabs, and foot/feather swabs were cultured for zoonotic Salmonella spp., Escherichia coli O157:H7, and non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) and characterized by serotyping and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Of 60 avian species sampled, 8 species (13.3%, bird groups of sparrows, icterids, geese, wrens, and kinglets) were positive for at least one of these foodborne pathogens. At the individual bird level, the detection of foodborne pathogens was infrequent in feces (n=583; 0.5% Salmonella, 0.34% E. coli O157:H7, and 0.5% non-O157 STEC) and in feet/feathers (n=401; 0.5% non-O157 STEC), and it was absent from oral swabs (n=353). Several subtypes of public health importance were identified, including Salmonella enterica serotype Newport, E. coli O157:H7, and STEC serogroups O103 and O26. In late summer and autumn, the same STEC subtype was episodically found in several individuals of the same and different avian species, suggesting a common source of contamination in the environment. Sympatric free-range cattle shared subtypes of STEC O26 and O163 with wild geese. A limited rate of positive detection in wild birds provides insights into broad risk profile for contamination considerations but cannot preclude or predict risk on an individual farm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Enhanced sensitivity to emotion stimuli and poor differentiation between self and others have been proposed to be important features of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Automatic processing of affective stimuli provides information about valence (positive vs. negative) and relevance of valence (self vs. other). Aims The objectives of our study were to investigate efficiency of automatic processing of valence and relevance at a semantic level in BPD compared to healthy individuals. Methods A masked affective priming task, varying valence and relevance of prime and target adjectives, was administered to 33 women with BPD and 33 healthy women. The forward and backward masked primes were shown for 50 ms. Subjects had the task to evaluate target words. Results In the whole sample, a significant affective priming effect and a significant relevance priming effect occurred. Presence of comorbid depressive disorder was positively correlated with extent of affective priming. BPD patients did not differ in affective priming from healthy individuals but they exhibited less relevance priming. Conclusions According to our data efficiency of automatic recognition and processing of valence information at a semantic level is not impaired in BPD compared to healthy individuals. However, BPD patients appear to be less able to perceive and differentiate automatically self- vs. other-relevance during the perception of affective information than healthy controls. The present results indicate that patients with BPD could manifest impairments of self-other differentiation already at a very early or basic stage of emotion processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Attentional processes are important for regulating emotional states and coping with stressful events. Orientation of attention acts as filter for subsequent information processing. So far, only few eye-tracking studies have examined attentional processes during emotion perception in borderline personality disorder (BPD). In these studies, gaze behaviour was analysed during simultaneous or delayed evaluation of single stimuli. The objective of the present eye-tracking study was to investigate early and late attention allocation towards emotional facial expressions in patients with BPD and non-patients (NPs) based on a free-viewing paradigm, which allows to examine processes of self-generated attention deployment., Methods: In a multiple-stimulus free-viewing task with facial expressions, i.e. happy, angry, sad, and neutral faces, presented simultaneously early and late attentional allocation was analysed in 43 patients with BPD and 43 age- and sex-matched NPs. We assessed study participants' trait anxiety, depressive symptoms, level of alexithymia, traumatic childhood experiences, and borderline symptoms. Entry time was used to measure initial gaze orientation, whereas dwell time was calculated as an index of late attention allocation., Results: As could be expected, patients with BPD reported more anxiety, depressive symptoms, experiences of childhood maltreatment, and showed higher levels of alexithymia than NPs. Patients differed from NPs in dwell time on happy facial expressions but not in dwell time on angry, sad, and neutral expressions. Contrary to our hypothesis, patients did not differ from NPs concerning entry times on angry facial expressions., Conclusions: According to our results, patients with BPD show a reduced attentional preference for happy facial expression during free viewing compared to NPs. A decreased positive attentional bias at a late processing stage could be part of emotion regulation impairments and add to the vulnerability for negative affects in BPD, which represent core symptoms of the disorder. In contrast to previous eye-tracking research in BPD examining attention during evaluative processing, our dwell time data could be more indicative of self-generated, endogenously controlled attentional processes in emotion perception. The present data do not support an early vigilance for threatening social information in BPD., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Alexithymia, a multifaceted personality construct, is known to be related to difficulties in the decoding of emotional facial expressions, especially in case of suboptimal stimuli. The present study investigated whether and which facets of alexithymia are related to impairments in the recognition of emotions in faces with face masks. Accuracy and speed of emotion recognition were examined in a block of faces with and a block of faces without face masks in a sample of 102 healthy individuals. The order of blocks varied between participants. Emotions were recognized better and faster in unmasked than in masked faces. Recognition performance was worst and slowest for participants starting the task with masked faces. In the whole sample, there were no correlations of alexithymia facets with accuracy and speed of emotion recognition for masked and unmasked faces. In participants starting the task with masked faces, the facet externally oriented thinking was positively correlated with reaction latencies of correct responses for masked faces. Our findings indicate that an externally oriented thinking style could be linked to a less efficient identification of emotions from faces wearing masks when task difficulty is high and support the utility of a facet approach in alexithymia research.

Background: The present longitudinal investigation had two major goals. First, we intended to clarify whether depressed patients are characterized by impairments of emotional awareness for the self and the other during acute illness and whether these impairments diminish in the course of an inpatient psychiatric treatment program. Previous research based on the performance measure Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS) provided inconsistent findings concerning emotional self-awareness in clinical depression. Second, we investigated whether cognitive and affective empathic abilities change from acute illness to recovery in depressed patients., Methods: Fifty-eight depressed patients were tested on admission and after 6-8 weeks of inpatient psychiatric treatment. A sample of fifty-three healthy individuals were also examined twice at an interval of 6-8 weeks. The LEAS and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) were administered to assess emotional awareness and empathic abilities. Written texts were digitalized and then analyzed using the electronic scoring program geLEAS, the German electronic Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale., Results: Depressed patients reported more depressive symptoms than healthy controls and less severe depressive symptomatology at time 2 compared to time 1. Independent of time, depressed individuals tended to show lower geLEAS self scores and had lower geLEAS other scores than healthy individuals. Depressed patients showed higher personal distress scores than healthy individuals at both measurement times. No group differences were observed for the cognitive empathy scales of the IRI (perspective taking and fantasy) and empathic concern, but empathic concern decreased significantly in depressed patients from time 1 to time 2. Empathic abilities as assessed by the IRI were not significantly correlated with emotional awareness for others, neither in the whole sample, nor in the patient and control subsample., Conclusions: Depressed patients seem to be characterized by impairments in emotional awareness of others during acute illness and recovery, but they also tend to show deficits in emotional self-awareness compared to healthy individuals. Self-reported cognitive empathic abilities seem to be at normal levels in depressed patients, but their heightened self-focused affective empathy may represent a vulnerability factor for depressive disorders., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Individuals with anxiety disorders (ADs) often display hypervigilance to threat information, although this response may be less pronounced following psychotherapy. This study aims to investigate the unconscious recognition performance of facial expressions in patients with panic disorder (PD) post-treatment, shedding light on alterations in their emotional processing biases., Methods: Patients with PD (n=34) after (exposure-based) cognitive behavior therapy and healthy controls (n=43) performed a subliminal affective recognition task. Emotional facial expressions (fearful, happy, or mirrored) were displayed for 33 ms and backwardly masked by a neutral face. Participants completed a forced choice task to discriminate the briefly presented facial stimulus and an uncovered condition where only the neutral mask was shown. We conducted a secondary analysis to compare groups based on their four possible response types under the four stimulus conditions and examined the correlation of the false alarm rate for fear responses to non-fearful (happy, mirrored, and uncovered) stimuli with clinical anxiety symptoms., Results: The patient group showed a unique selection pattern in response to happy expressions, with significantly more correct "happy" responses compared to controls. Additionally, lower severity of anxiety symptoms after psychotherapy was associated with a decreased false fear response rate with non-threat presentations., Conclusion: These data suggest that patients with PD exhibited a "happy-face recognition advantage" after psychotherapy. Less symptoms after treatment were related to a reduced fear bias. Thus, a differential facial emotion detection task could be a suitable tool to monitor response patterns and biases in individuals with ADs in the context of psychotherapy., Competing Interests: ZQ received scholarships from the China Scholarships Council. MH, VA, H-UW, AS, CK, and TK have received research support from various sources, as detailed in Yang et al. 2020. The reviewer JM declared a past co-authorship with the author AOH to the handling editor. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 Qian, Yang, Domschke, Gerlach, Hamm, Richter, Herrmann, Deckert, Arolt, Zwanzger, Lotze, Pfleiderer, Wittchen, Lang, Ströhle, Konrad, Rief, Suslow, Jansen, Kircher and Straube.)

Biased emotion processing has been suggested to underlie the etiology and maintenance of depression. Neuroimaging studies have shown mood-congruent alterations in amygdala activity in patients with acute depression, even during early, automatic stages of emotion processing. However, due to a lack of prospective studies over periods longer than 8 weeks, it is unclear whether these neurofunctional abnormalities represent a persistent correlate of depression even in remission. In this prospective case-control study, we aimed to examine brain functional correlates of automatic emotion processing in the long-term course of depression. In a naturalistic design, n = 57 patients with acute major depressive disorder (MDD) and n = 37 healthy controls (HC) were assessed with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at baseline and after 2 years. Patients were divided into two subgroups according to their course of illness during the study period (n = 37 relapse, n = 20 no-relapse). During fMRI, participants underwent an affective priming task that assessed emotion processing of subliminally presented sad and happy compared to neutral face stimuli. A group × time × condition (3 × 2 × 2) ANOVA was performed for the amygdala as region-of-interest (ROI). At baseline, there was a significant group × condition interaction, resulting from amygdala hyperactivity to sad primes in patients with MDD compared to HC, whereas no difference between groups emerged for happy primes. In both patient subgroups, amygdala hyperactivity to sad primes persisted after 2 years, regardless of relapse or remission at follow-up. The results suggest that amygdala hyperactivity during automatic processing of negative stimuli persists during remission and represents a trait rather than a state marker of depression. Enduring neurofunctional abnormalities may reflect a consequence of or a vulnerability to depression., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Alexithymia is a clinically relevant personality construct characterized by difficulties identifying and communicating one's emotions and externally oriented thinking. Alexithymia has been found to be related to poor emotion decoding and diminished attention to the eyes. The present eye tracking study investigated whether high levels of alexithymia are related to impairments in recognizing emotions in masked faces and reduced attentional preference for the eyes. An emotion recognition task with happy, fearful, disgusted, and neutral faces with face masks was administered to high-alexithymic and non-alexithymic individuals. Hit rates, latencies of correct responses, and fixation duration on eyes and face mask were analyzed as a function of group and sex. Alexithymia had no effects on accuracy and speed of emotion recognition. However, alexithymic men showed less attentional preference for the eyes relative to the mask than non-alexithymic men, which was due to their increased attention to face masks. No fixation duration differences were observed between alexithymic and non-alexithymic women. Our data indicate that high levels of alexithymia might not have adverse effects on the efficiency of emotion recognition from faces wearing masks. Future research on gaze behavior during facial emotion recognition in high alexithymia should consider sex as a moderating variable.

Background: Eye contact is a fundamental part of social interaction. In clinical studies, it has been observed that patients suffering from depression make less eye contact during interviews than healthy individuals, which could be a factor contributing to their social functioning impairments. Similarly, results from mood induction studies with healthy persons indicate that attention to the eyes diminishes as a function of sad mood. The present screen-based eye-tracking study examined whether depressive symptoms in healthy individuals are associated with reduced visual attention to other persons' direct gaze during free viewing., Methods: Gaze behavior of 44 individuals with depressive symptoms and 49 individuals with no depressive symptoms was analyzed in a free viewing task. Grouping was based on the Beck Depression Inventory using the cut-off proposed by Hautzinger et al. (2006). Participants saw pairs of faces with direct gaze showing emotional or neutral expressions. One-half of the face pairs was shown without face masks, whereas the other half was presented with face masks. Participants' dwell times and first fixation durations were analyzed., Results: In case of unmasked facial expressions, participants with depressive symptoms looked shorter at the eyes compared to individuals without symptoms across all expression conditions. No group difference in first fixation duration on the eyes of masked and unmasked faces was observed. Individuals with depressive symptoms dwelled longer on the mouth region of unmasked faces. For masked faces, no significant group differences in dwell time on the eyes were found. Moreover, when specifically examining dwell time on the eyes of faces with an emotional expression there were also no significant differences between groups. Overall, participants gazed significantly longer at the eyes in masked compared to unmasked faces., Conclusions: For faces without mask, our results suggest that depressiveness in healthy individuals goes along with less visual attention to other persons' eyes but not with less visual attention to others' faces. When factors come into play that generally amplify the attention directed to the eyes such as face masks or emotions then no relationship between depressiveness and visual attention to the eyes can be established., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Alexithymia is a risk factor for emotional disorders and is characterized by differences in automatic and controlled emotion processing. The multi-stimulus free-viewing task has been used to detect increased negative and reduced positive attentional biases in depression and anxiety. In the present eye-tracking study, we examined whether lexical emotional priming directs attention toward emotion-congruent facial expressions and whether alexithymia is related to impairments in lexical priming and spontaneous attention deployment during multiple face perception., Materials and Methods: A free-viewing task with happy, fearful, angry, and neutral faces shown simultaneously was administered to 32 alexithymic and 46 non-alexithymic individuals along with measures of negative affect and intelligence. Face presentation was preceded by masked emotion words. Indices of initial orienting and maintenance of attention were analyzed as a function of prime or target category and study group., Results: Time to first fixation was not affected by prime category or study group. Analysis of fixation duration yielded a three-way interaction. Alexithymic individuals exhibited no prime or target category effect, whereas non-alexithymic individuals showed a main effect of target condition, fixating happy faces longer than neutral and angry faces and fearful faces longer than angry faces., Discussion: Our results show evidence of attentional biases for positive and fearful social information in non-alexithymic individuals, but not in alexithymic individuals. The lack of spontaneous attentional preference for these social stimuli in alexithymia might contribute to a vulnerability for developing emotional disorders. Our data also suggest that briefly presented emotion words may not facilitate gaze orientation toward emotion-congruent stimuli., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Surber, Hoepfel, Günther, Kersting, Rufer, Suslow and Bodenschatz.)