An investigation into the relationships between interoception, alexithymia, theory of mind, empathy and bodily self-consciousness in autism

Recent theories have proposed that four alexithymia subtypes exist within clinical populations (including individuals with autism). Furthermore, there are relationships between patterns of impairments in bodily self-consciousness, interoceptive processing, emotional processing, theory of mind (ToM) and empathy in autism and alexithymia. This thesis aimed to investigate: (i) how common four alexithymia subtypes are in the autistic population; and (ii) whether there are patterns of impairments that are affiliated with autism and alexithymia, which are related to each other. Study one investigated how common four alexithymia subtypes are in an autistic population and found no difference in commonality of these alexithymia subtypes in this population. Studies one and two investigated relationships between interoception, alexithymia, recognition of others’ emotional body states and ToM. These studies found that only individuals who have autism and alexithymia have altered interoceptive processing and deficits in ToM. Study two found that recognition of others’ emotional body states is not a characteristic of autism that is not related to interoception and ToM. Study three investigated relationships between interoception, emotional egocentricity bias (EEB) and ToM. This study found that heightened EEB is not a characteristic of autism that is not related to interoception and ToM. Study four investigated relationships between interoception, bodily self-consciousness and empathy. This study found that altered bodily self-consciousness may not be and empathy deficits are characteristics of autism that are not related to interoception and empathy. In conclusion, these results show that: (i) four alexithymia subtypes may exist in members of the autistic population: and (ii) there are patterns of impairments that are present in individuals with autism and cognitive alexithymia (altered interoceptive processing and ToM deficits) and individuals with autism (empathy deficits), which are not related to each other. How this furthers our understanding of alexithymia and autism at a theoretical level is discussed.