Hearing Feelings: Affective Categorization of Music and Speech in Alexithymia
Author Information
Author(s): Goerlich Katharina Sophia, Witteman Jurriaan, Aleman André, Martens Sander
Primary Institution: Neuroimaging Center, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
Hypothesis
Alexithymia is associated with reduced affective priming effects and diminished N400 amplitudes in response to affectively incongruent music and speech.
Conclusion
Alexithymia is linked to a reduced sensitivity to the emotional qualities of speech and music during affective categorization.
Supporting Evidence
- Alexithymia was associated with significantly smaller N400 amplitudes in response to affectively incongruent music and speech targets.
- The affective priming effect for prosody targets tended to be reduced with increasing scores on alexithymia.
- Participants categorized music segments preceded by affectively congruent visual word primes significantly faster than those preceded by incongruent primes.
Takeaway
People with alexithymia have a harder time understanding emotions in music and speech, which can make it tough for them to express their feelings.
Methodology
Participants judged the affective valence of music and speech prosody presented after visual word primes in a cross-modal affective priming paradigm.
Potential Biases
Potential confounding due to varying scores on type I alexithymia.
Limitations
The study did not control for type I alexithymia and lacked correction for multiple comparisons.
Participant Demographics
32 students (16 male, mean age 23.8, SD 4.4) from the University of Groningen.
Statistical Information
P-Value
p<0.01
Confidence Interval
95%
Statistical Significance
p<0.05
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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