Faculty Collaboration Database

The role of alexithymia in memory and executive functioning across the lifespan. Cogn Emot 2021 May;35(3):524-539

Date

08/29/2019

Pubmed ID

31456477

Pubmed Central ID

PMC7047630

DOI

10.1080/02699931.2019.1659232

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85071340721 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   15 Citations

Abstract

Alexithymia is a personality trait characterised by difficulties identifying feelings (DIF), describing feelings (DDF), and externally oriented thinking (EOT). Alexithymia has been associated with poorer memory, at least for emotive materials, and recently, with executive and neural dysfunction. Aging is also accompanied by poorer memory and executive functioning (EF), neural dysfunction, and increasing alexithymia. Thus, the hypothesis of a general cognitive impairment in alexithymia, particularly in elders, needs investigation. Three large, independent, cross-sectional experiments (n = 296, 139 and 121, respectively) investigated memory and EF in healthy adults, ranging from young to old adulthood, with age, sex, and the three Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 subscales (DIF, DDF, EOT) as predictors in hierarchical regressions. Across studies, alexithymia contributed to poorer memory (via EOT) and EF (via DIF), in younger and older adults. Additionally, these effects occurred in non-emotive contexts with neutral stimuli. Moreover, although memory was worse with greater age and poor EF contributed to poor memory, those who had both high EOT and poor EF had particularly poor memory. Thus, alexithymia (particularly via high DIF or high EOT) is a risk factor for age-related cognitive decline. Further research should clarify the direction and nature of these complex relationships.

Author List

Correro AN 2nd, Paitel ER, Byers SJ, Nielson KA

Authors

Anthony N. Correro PhD Assistant Professor in the Neurology department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Kristy Nielson PhD Professor in the Psychology department at Marquette University

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adult
Affective Symptoms
Aged
Cross-Sectional Studies
Emotions
Executive Function
Humans
Longevity