Correlation between theory of mind and empathy among alexithymia college students

Objective To investigate the capability of empathy and theory of mind (ToM) in alexithymia.Methods Thirty-six alexithymia patients and 32 age-,gender-and education background matching healthy controls were recruited.Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI-C) were used to measure empathy.Chinese version of Yoni task were used to measure ToM.Results Compared to controls,accuracy of cognitive items was significantly lower in alexithymia [(20.28± 3.61) vs.(21.78 ± 1.88)] (P<0.05).Second-order cognitive items was significantly lower in alexithymia [(8.81±2.54) vs.(10.19± 1.28)] (P<0.01).Affective items was significantly lower in alexithymia [(43.72±6.91) vs.(46.92±4.12)] (P<0.05).Second-order cognitive items was significantly lower in alexithymia [(32.89±5.70) vs.(35.53±3.33)] (P<0.05).Alexithymia showed lower scores in factors of perspective taking [(10.61±3.66) vs.(12.61±4.09)] (P<0.05),higher scores in factors of personal-distress [(8.83±3.64) vs.(5.72±3.97)] (P<0.01) in IRI-C.Conclusion Alexithymia patients might have deficit in the capability of empathy and Theory of mind.