A caudate-centered network for alexithymia derived from patients with brain tumors
- 1Mass General Brigham, Harvard Medical School
Abstract
Alexithymia is a trait characterized by impaired emotional awareness. Previous accounts examining the neurobiological underpinnings of this trait have centered on a variety of structures, and alexithymia-causing lesions occur in disparate locations. We use lesion network mapping to derive a neural circuit for alexithymia. In a neurosurgical cohort of 45 patients with gliomas (19 female; aged 18-75 years), we compute each lesion's connectivity to the rest of the brain using a normative connectome (n = 1,000) and relate these connectivity maps to preoperative Toronto Alexithymia Scale scores using permutation testing. Lesions associated with higher alexithymia are connected to a common network that includes the bilateral caudate heads (right greater than left) and the anterior cingulate cortex, peaking in the right caudate head (family-wise error-corrected p < 0.05). The network converges with coordinates from an independent meta-analysis of gray matter volume in alexithymia (13 of 14 coordinates positive; p = 0.0004). Of the three subscales, difficulty identifying feelings localized to this network. Within the striatum, the network spans the executive and limbic subdivisions. These findings suggest a caudate-centered circuit, at the interface of affective and executive systems, that unifies disparate lesion locations.
Related
- Co-occurrence network multicollinearity artefacts using centered log-ratio transformation
- The TCF1-centered stemness network as the foundation of T cell longevity
- A Cilia-Centered Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NAD⁺) Signaling Network Regulates Hypothalamic Lysosomal Homeostasis and Metabolic Aging.
- Transcription factor modularity in a gene-centered C. elegans core neuronal protein–DNA interaction network
- Gene repertoire expansion and cis-regulatory diversification shaped 26S proteasome evolution within a proteostasis-centered network
BibTeX
@misc{mcmahon2026caudatecentered,
title = {{A caudate-centered network for alexithymia derived from patients with brain tumors}},
author = {J. T. McMahon and M. R. Healey and Y. Sanchez-Gama and F. Campanella and M. Skrap and M. A. Ferguson},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.64898/2026.11.06.764956},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.11.06.764956v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A caudate-centered network for alexithymia derived from patients with brain tumors
AU - J. T. McMahon
AU - M. R. Healey
AU - Y. Sanchez-Gama
AU - F. Campanella
AU - M. Skrap
AU - M. A. Ferguson
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/06
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.11.06.764956
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.11.06.764956v1
AB - Alexithymia is a trait characterized by impaired emotional awareness. Previous accounts examining the neurobiological underpinnings of this trait have centered on a variety of structures, and alexithymia-causing lesions occur in disparate locations. We use lesion network mapping to derive a neural circuit for alexithymia. In a neurosurgical cohort of 45 patients with gliomas (19 female; aged 18-75 years), we compute each lesion's connectivity to the rest of the brain using a normative connectome (n = 1,000) and relate these connectivity maps to preoperative Toronto Alexithymia Scale scores using permutation testing. Lesions associated with higher alexithymia are connected to a common network that includes the bilateral caudate heads (right greater than left) and the anterior cingulate cortex, peaking in the right caudate head (family-wise error-corrected p < 0.05). The network converges with coordinates from an independent meta-analysis of gray matter volume in alexithymia (13 of 14 coordinates positive; p = 0.0004). Of the three subscales, difficulty identifying feelings localized to this network. Within the striatum, the network spans the executive and limbic subdivisions. These findings suggest a caudate-centered circuit, at the interface of affective and executive systems, that unifies disparate lesion locations.
ER -