id_804. DISTINCT ALTERATIONS IN SOCIAL SEMANTIC PROCESSING ARE LINKED TO ALEXITHYMIA AND AUTISM TRAITS
Marcos Ibáñez Montolio1, Iván González-García1, Richard J. Binney2, Paul Hoffman3, Michal Rafal Zareba1, Maya Visser1
1 Neuropsychology and Functional Neuroimaging Group, Department of Basic and Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Jaume I University, Av. Vicent Sos Baynat, s/n 12071, Castelló de la Plana, Spain
2 Department of Psychology and Bangor Imaging Unit, Bangor University, LL57 2AS, Gwynedd, United Kingdom
3 School of Philosophy, Psychology & Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, EH8 9AD, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
INTRODUCTION: Alexithymia is a multifaceted and dimensional condition characterized by difficulties identifying and describing feelings, and a decreased ability to engage in abstract thinking. Although an independent construct, it often co-occurs with autism spectrum disorders, in which it is believed to underlie the observed emotion processing difficulties. Converging lines of evidence point towards the key role of semantic cognition in socio-emotional processing, and the importance of serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline, in enabling socially-driven emotions and cognitions. Accordingly, we expect alexithymia and autism traits to produce unique alterations in these networks underlying socio-emotional cognition.
AIM(S): The current study aimed to elucidate this matter by investigating how alexithymia and autism facets were associated with brain activity and connectivity patterns during two tasks probing distinct aspects of social cognition using a large sample of 126 healthy adults.
METHOD(S): Task connectivity analyses focused on the interactions of the brain areas involved in the social semantics networks, specifically the anterior temporal lobes, and the brainstem areas behind the brain’s neuromodulatory responses, i.e. dorsal raphe, ventral tegmental area, and locus coeruleus.
RESULTS: We observed significant associations for both task activity and connectivity, with the majority of effects found for the latter. Specifically, across both tasks, alexithymia was to a greater extent associated with functional connectivity between seed regions and brain areas involved in pain somesthesis, visual perception and action inhibition, while autism results were more strongly related with areas involved in explicit and working memory, language and social cognition.
CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, these findings suggest that both constructs are associated with alterations in areas related to distinct cognitive processes, highlighting the need to distinguish between them in both research and clinical settings.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT: Research projects awarded to Maya Visser: Grant PID2021-127516NB-I00 funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF/EU”, Grant RYC2019-028370-I funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ESF Investing in your future”, Grant CIAICO/2021/088 funded by Conselleria de Educación, Universidades y Empleo and Grant UJI-B2022-55 funded by Universitat Jaume I.