New Trends in Experimental and Clinical Psychiatry - Vol. IX - n. 1/2, 1993 Alexithymiaand the processing of emotionalstimuli: an experimental study J. PARKER*, G. TAYLOR.., M. BAGBY. SUMMARY:The emotion processingcapacities of 16 alezi. thymic students and 54 non-ale%ithymic students were compared using a modified Stroop task in which subjects named the colours of neutral words, arousal words, and baseline stimuli. Both the ale%ithymic students and the non-alexithymic students took lo1f8er to colour-name arou- sal words than to colour-name neutral words and baseline stimuli. However, consistent with the view that alexithy- mia reflects a deficit in the ability cognitively to process and modulate emotional stimuli, the ale%ithymicstudents took significantly longer than the non-alexithymic stu- dents to colour-name arousal words. The groups did not differ significantly in their ability to colour-name neutral words and baselinestimuli. KEYWORDS: Alexithymia, emotions, stroop test INTRODUCTION The alexithymia construct was formulated by Nemiah and Sifneos (Nemiah et al., 1976) during the early 1970s to encompass a cluster of affective and cognitive characteristics observed among patients with so-called "classical" psy- chosomaticdiseases (Nemiah and Sifneos, 1970; Ruesch, 1949; Shands, 1975). It was noted that these patients frequently. have considerabledif- ficulty in identifying and describing subjective feelings, an impoverished fantasy life, and a DIPII1.-1I 01PsydIi8Iry, UniverIiIy of T~Io, ~0I80Id8f8c.x. 250 CoI8g8 SII88I, T~, Can8da M5T 1R8 "CI8k8 I..-u!8 01Piyd1i8tty -Moura Sin8i HOIpft8I cognitive style that is concrete and reality- based.Similar characteristics were subsequent- ly observed also among patients with substance use disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders, eating disorders, somatization disorders, and panic disorder (Bruch, 1985; Flannery, 1977; Krystal, 1988a; Krystal and Raskin, 1970; Lesser, 1985;Nemiah, 1984). As the alexithymia construct has evolved it has come to include the following salient fea- tures: (a) difficulty in identifying and describing feelings, (b) difficulty in distinguishing between feelings and the bodily sensations that accom- pany emotional arousal,.(C) constricted imaginal processes, as evidenced by a paucity of fanta- sies, and (d) a cognitive style characterized by a preoccupation with the details of external events (Taylor et al., 1991). These personality characteristics are thought to reflect deficits in the capacity cognitively to process and modulate emotions (Saloveyand Mayer, 1989-90; Sifneos, 1988;Taylor, 1992a). For example,difficulties in identifying subjective feelings have been linked to a failure developmentally to construct com- plex cognitive schemata and linguistic and other synibolic representations of emotions that are necessary for the accurate appraisal of states of emotional arousal (Lane and Schwartz, 1987). Unable accurately to identify their own emotions, alexithymic individuals verbally com- municate emotional distress to other people very poorly, thereby failing to enlist others as sources of aid in modulating their distress (Tay- lor, 1992b). The associated constricted imaginal capacities also limit the extent to which alexi- thymic individuals can modulate anxiety and other negative emotions by fantasy, dreams, interests, and play (Krystal, 1988b; Mayes and Cohen, 1992). These theoretical speculations are now supported by an accumulating body of 9