<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[The Dish]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://dish.andrewsullivan.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Andrew Sullivan]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://dish.andrewsullivan.com/author/sullydish/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Left Cold By&nbsp;Coffee?]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>A new study <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2014/09/18/coffee-drinkers-emotions-alexithymia/">suggests</a> heavy coffee-drinkers &#8220;find it more difficult to identify and describe their own emotions&#8221;:</p>
<blockquote><p>“<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexithymia">Alexithymia</a>” – Greek for “no words for feelings” – is the psychological terminology for an inability to put ones emotions into words. [Researcher Michael] Lyvers et al did a survey study of 106 university students and found that alexithymia was correlated with the amount of caffeine consumed per day&#8230;. Lyvers et al say that</p>
<p style="padding-left:30px;">Alexithymics reported consuming nearly twice as much caffeine per day on average compared to non-alexithymic controls or those with borderline alexithymia.</p>
<p>As to why this is the case, the authors speculate that</p>
<p style="padding-left:30px;">Perhaps those with alexithymia consume caffeine more heavily than non-alexithymics in an attempt to optimize inherently low arousal levels.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Reviewing the results, Neuroskeptic stays true to his nom de plume:</p>
<blockquote><p>My concern here is that because this is a <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2012/08/29/beyond-self-report/#.VBs5w2Oqbz9">self-report questionnaire</a>, the [Toronto Alexithymia Scale] is measuring <em>worries over alexithymia</em> as opposed to alexithymia per se. Moreover, I notice that in Lyver’s dataset, the TAS was quite strongly correlated with self-reported anxiety, apathy, dis-inhibition and executive dysfunction. So I’d say that it’s plausible that all of these self-report scores are reflecting some basic ‘tendency to give negative answers on questionnaires’ which might reflect neuroticism, low self-esteem or (if you prefer) just realism.</p></blockquote>
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