Abstract
Contemporary neurosciences have shown that emotions, thought and language involve the functioning of connected brain areas, which allow the recognition and expression of one’s own feelings.
The scope of this pilot study is to investigate the link among the verbal expression of emotional experiences (assessed with the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia – TSIA -), the linguistic structure and the brain structure.
To this aim, 9 healthy adult subjects of both sexes were interviewed by means of the TSIA and the cortical and subcortical structural measures were detected. The TSIA transcripts were analysed by using a cluster analysis and, subsequently, a correspondence analysis, and the values of factors were correlated with cortical and subcortical structural measures as well as TSIA scores, evidencing significant associations.
The study highlighted that in healthy subjects it is possible to identify a link between the manner in which people express their experiences, recognize and use their emotions and the brain structural correlates.