Feelings you can’t imagine: towards a cognitive neuroscience of alexithymia
André Aleman
BCN NeuroImaging Center, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
Alexithymia, or ‘no words for feelings’, refers to an impairment of the ability to identify and communicate one’s emotional state, in addition to diminished affect-related fantasy and imagery. A recent study by Mantani et al. reported reduced activation of the posterior cingulate cortex in people with alexithymia when they imagined a future happy event. This finding augments the emerging understanding of the neural basis of alexithymia, and potentially provides valuable insights into brain systems underlying normal emotion processing.
