Alexithymia Moderates Salience Effects in Emotional Facial Expression Perception and Recognition

Alexithymia is a multi-faceted personality trait associated with particularities in emotion processing and regulation. While alexithymia total scores have frequently been used to explain these particularities, recent models suggest a differentiated role of specific alexithymia facets at specific emotion processing stages. In this study, we investigated whether alexithymia total scores and facets moderate the effect of emotional salience on valence ratings, arousal ratings and correct emotion recognition. Ninety-four non-clinical participants provided valence and arousal ratings as well as discrete emotion labels for 160 pictures of emotional facial expressions varying in morphing intensity (40%, 60%, 80% and 100% emotion intensity) and discrete emotion type (happy, angry, disgusted, sad, fearful). Alexithymia levels were measured with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Our results show that alexithymia total scores moderate arousal and emotion recognition at lower salience levels. Higher alexithymia total scores were associated with higher arousal ratings and higher emotion recognition probability, but only at 40% morphing intensity, which partially supports the over-responding model of alexithymia. In addition, we found contrasted effects of alexithymia facets. Taken together, these results highlight the importance of focusing on emotional salience perception in alexithymia.