Integrative neuroimaging study for self awareness and meta recognition system in alexithymia

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23390192
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: General internal medicine(including psychosomatic medicine)
• Research Institution: National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry (2011-2013, 2015); Gunma University (2014-2015)
• Principal Investigator: Moriguchi Yoshiya 国立研究開発法人国立精神・神経医療研究センター, 精神保健研究所 精神生理研究部, 客員研究員 (40392477)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KOMAKI Gen 国際医療福祉大学, 教授 (70225564) ; KUMANO Hiroaki 早稲田大学, 教授 (90280875)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 心療内科学 / 心身症 / アレキシサイミア / 脳神経科学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Alexithymia is an important psychopathology which manifests inability to identify self’s emotion and difficulty in expressing it. The aim of this study is to reveal neural basis of the relationship between body and mind status changes, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). For self-continuity based on autobiographical information, we created web system to record everyday events and found that positive memories are more retained than negative ones, which involves hippocampus activities. We also measured brain activity with fMRI and concurrently heart rate variability (HRV) in response to emotional stimuli, and found insula and ventromedical prefrontal activity and connectivity were correlated with parasympathetic factor in HRV. Oversensitivity to interoceptive information increased anxiety and insula activity was decreased in alexithymia.

Free Research Field

心身医学　脳機能画像学