The Experimental Research On Central And Peripheral Feedback Of Alexithymics

The aim of this study is to discuss central EEG action and peripheral physiological response model on alexithymics during the baseline, viewing the emotional movie, doing calculation and recovery state after watching movie and computing. We measured 500 undergraduate students and graduate students using the Toronto TAS-20 item questionnaire. Thirty people were chosen to participate the experiment, they were divided into two groups, alexithymics and the control group, each group has 15 people. EEG, heart rate, skin conductance and respiration are recorded during the five tasks, so we can compare the differences of physiological response between both groups during completing five tasks.Results shew that on the EEG brain amplitude, alexithymics displayed significantly increased amplitude in the baseline stage, film task and computing task. Alexithymics also shew significantly higher brain power on the frontal areas and the central areas of left and right brain. On the central area of left brain alexithymics shew significantly lower percent power when viewing the film, but on the central area of right brain alexithymics shew significantly higher percent power. On the parietal area of both hemispheres alexithymics also shew significantly higher percent power when viewing film. Other results shew that alexithymics displayed significantly lower heart rate during the rest stage after film task and significantly higher heart rate during the rest stage after computing task. At the same time, alexithymics also overestimated their own physiological responses.