Abstract
Alexithymia refers to a specific disturbance in emotional processing that is manifested through difficulties in identifying and verbalizing feelings. The main objective of this investigation has been the study about the relationship between subjective and autonomic physiological reactivity pattern to stressful laboratory situation, related with alexithymia level, assessed by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, TAS-20. The experiment involved six phases: I-adaptation, II-relaxation, III-stress (mental arithmetic), IV-relaxation, V-stress (watching a distressing film), and VI-relaxation. During all periods, the subjective self-perception of physiological activation and autonomic reactivity (using the Palmar Sweat Index), was assessed. Results showed a significantly dissociation by group between subjective selfperception of physiological arousal and self-perception of affective arousal in questionnaire scores, during adaptation period exclusively. The results don't show significant correlations among groups between the subjective self-perception of activation and the autonomous reactivity. These results are discussed in terms of their alexithymic characteristics they are associated with autonomic arousal.
