Individual Differences in Emotional Awareness and the Lateralized Processing of Emotion
Taitano, Elizabeth Keolani
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/82326
Description
Title
Individual Differences in Emotional Awareness and the Lateralized Processing of Emotion
Author(s)
Taitano, Elizabeth Keolani
Issue Date
2000
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Miller, Gregory A.
Department of Study
Psychology
Discipline
Psychology
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Psychology, Physiological
Language
eng
Abstract
Right hemisphere dysfunction as well as an interhemispheric deficit were indicated by the behavior of early attentional (P100) and later semantic (N400, P300) components in the High Alexithymic (HA) group. Many of these effects were emotion-specific, but some were not. A P100 selective attention deficit indicating reduced right hemisphere (RH) involvement in individuals scoring high in alexithymia was correlated with a failure to differentiate emotional valence when interhemispheric communication was required. Gender moderated several effects. Most notably, only female HAs exhibited: (1) an N170 that was larger over the posterior RH than left hemisphere (LH), suggesting higher autonomic arousal, and (2) a lack of differentiation by N400 of facial expressions over the posterior RH when interhemispheric communication was required. These effects were not correlated, indicating they occurred in different HA females. This may be explained by the existence in the sample of mild subtypes resembling both Type I (absence of experience of emotion, related to a right hemisphere deficit) and Type II (experience intact with cognitions about emotion absent, related to an interhemispheric deficit) alexithymics, as distinguished by Bermond (1995). Well-validated measures for distinguishing between these subtypes are not currently available.
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