Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41941323›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in public health2026

Emotional-cognitive integration in aging: the role of alexithymia in mild cognitive impairment.

Giulia Marselli, Ilaria Corbo, Anna Pecchinenda, Giuseppe Forte, Francesca Favieri, Giovanna Troisi, Barbara Blasutto, Maria Casagrande

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Article in Frontiers in public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Giulia MarselliDepartment of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Ilaria CorboDepartment of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Anna PecchinendaDepartment of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Giuseppe ForteDepartment of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Francesca FavieriDepartment of Psychology, University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti and Pescara, Chieti, Italy.
Giovanna TroisiDepartment of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Barbara BlasuttoDepartment of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Maria CasagrandeDepartment of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Introduction: Aging is accompanied by a range of cognitive and emotional changes. Among these, difficulty in identifying and describing feelings and a tendency toward externally oriented thinking have been associated with frank cognitive decline. This pattern is known as alexithymia and reflects emotional dysregulation. Methods: Three hundred and twenty adults aged 50-80 years classified as healthy controls, amnestic MCI (aMCI), or non-amnestic MCI (naMCI), completed a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment and the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Results and discussion: Participants with aMCI showed significantly higher levels of alexithymia, compared to healthy controls. This pattern suggests that emotional dysregulation is more pronounced in individuals with memory-related cognitive decline. In both the aMCI and naMCI groups, correlations between alexithymia scores and cognitive measures were negative, indicating that higher alexithymia was associated with poorer cognitive performance. In contrast, these associations were weak in healthy controls, implying that the link between emotional processing difficulties and cognitive inefficiency emerges primarily in MCI. Taken together, these findings point to a specific interplay between emotional and cognitive domains in the early stages of neurodegenerative decline. Accordingly, elevated alexithymia in aMCI individuals might represent a socio-emotional marker of prodromal Alzheimer's disease, highlighting the importance of considering emotional regulation in the assessment of cognitive aging.

Indexed as

Affective SymptomsAgingCognitionCognitive DysfunctionEmotionsAgedAged, 80 and overFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedNeuropsychological Testsagingalexithymiacognitive functionsemotional awarenessemotion–cognition interactionexternally oriented thinkingmild cognitive impairment

Identifiers

PMID41941323
PMCPMC13043370

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.