both negative and positive emotions, although people typically report more difficulties for negative emotions. Such findings of valence-specific effects in alexithymia are also supported by brain imaging studies.

Studies (using measures of alexithymia assessing DIF, DDF, and EOT) have reported that the prevalence rate of high alexithymia is less than 10% of the population. A less common finding suggests that there may be a higher prevalence of alexithymia amongst males than females, which may be accounted for by difficulties some males