Alexithymia and perception of facial expressions of emotion

The goal was to provide a clear test of deficits in perception of emotion in alexithymia by investigating the ability to detect and rate the intensity of facial expressions of emotion. Alexithymia was assessed by the 20-item Toronto alexithymia scale (TAS 20). In the first study, using signal detection methods, alexithymia was found to be associated with difficulties in detection of anger, sadness, and fear in a sample of 128 students. In the second study, there was a marked reduction of ratings of the intensity of the expression of fear among a sample of 43 students scoring high or low on the TAS 20. Characterization of the perceptual deficit was provided by its correlation with Externally-Oriented Thinking. The emotion perception deficit would make it difficult negotiating the socio-emotional world, potentially leading to avoidable stress and conflict.