1. PLOS One
- Author
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Jin Fan, Kai Wang, Xiaosi Gu, Xun Liu, John Fossella, and Kevin G. Guise
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,Psychometrics ,media_common.quotation_subject ,lcsh:Medicine ,050105 experimental psychology ,03 medical and health sciences ,Toronto Alexithymia Scale ,0302 clinical medicine ,Alexithymia ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,medicine ,Humans ,Personality ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Affective Symptoms ,Temperament ,lcsh:Science ,Anterior cingulate cortex ,media_common ,Multidisciplinary ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,05 social sciences ,lcsh:R ,Cognition ,medicine.disease ,Mental Health/Psychology ,Neuroscience/Experimental Psychology ,Neuroscience/Psychology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Trait ,Regression Analysis ,Female ,lcsh:Q ,Psychology ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Research Article ,Clinical psychology - Abstract
Background: Alexithymia is a personality trait characterized by deficiency in understanding, processing, or describing emotions. Recent studies have revealed that alexithymia is associated with less activation of the anterior cingulate cortex, a brain region shown to play a role in cognitive and emotional processing. However, few studies have directly investigated the cognitive domain in relation to alexithymia to examine whether alexithymic trait is related to less efficient voluntary control. Methodology/ Principal Findings: We examined the relationship between alexithymic trait and voluntary control in a group of healthy volunteers. We used the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) to measure alexithymic trait. Additionally, we examined state and trait voluntary control using the revised Attention Network Test (ANT-R) and the Adult Temperament Questionnaire (ATQ), respectively. Alexithymic trait was positively correlated with the overall reaction time of the ANT-R, and negatively correlated with the Effortful Control factor of the ATQ. Conclusions/Significance: Our results suggest that alexithymic trait is associated with less efficient voluntary control. This research was supported by NIH Grant Number R21MH083164 to J.F.
- Published
- 2008