## 4 Discussion
In the comparison, based on the presence of AX, on the other hand, it emerges that in the most unexpected condition (listening to the Divina Commedia as opposed to reading), the AOT group tended to manifest significantly more NEUTRAL emotion (Figure 3) than the NA group, possibly indicating a lack of emotional response [94]. This could be due to the tendency of alexithymia subjects to use expressive suppression as an emotional regulation strategy, possibly stemming from a lack of understanding of their emotions [95]. Furthermore, the higher perceived arousal INTENSITY during listening compared to NA (Figure 5) would seem to be in line with the theory of hyperarousal in alexithymia, which posits that alexithymia is related to higher tonic levels of sympathetic activity and sympathetic reactivity [96], in practice a higher emotional reactivity [97]. Empirical studies have found support for this hypothesis in the visual [98], olfactory [99] and haptic [100] perception of emotions. Our results could provide a contribution to the hyperarousal theory in the auditory modality. Such a hypothesis was supported by our correlation and regression analysis results (Figure 6), showing that the level of alexithymia during listening may predict the intensity the participant manifests. From an art-therapeutic perspective, we could also hypothesize that listening to poetry can, unlike the text, make the alexithymia subject perceive more intensity, and this poetry pattern can be evaluated positively within an art therapy treatment for alexithymia (for art therapy in alexithymia see [101; 102]). In fact, considering that experiential avoidance may be the mechanism (mediating variable) by which alexithymia influences emotion dysregulation [103], one could structure a sort of exposure therapy intervention [104] on listening to poetry to assess a modulation in both self-reported and neurophysiological response. Or, extracts from the Divina Commedia, could be used as part of both individual and group psychotherapeutic poetry interventions [105; 106]. Clearly, this interpretative hypothesis should be confirmed by physiological data on the activation of the sympathetic system during a randomized controlled trial combined with additional psychodiagnostic assessments. FEAR has been one of the most influential emotions in humanity's history [107] and received more scientific attention than any other emotion [108]. Ethologists define fear as a motivational state aroused by specific stimuli that gives rise to defensive behaviour or escape [109]. Already [PERSON], at the end of the 19 th century, identified fear by defining it as'states of mind' that we have inherited from our mammalian ancestors by virtue of having inherited certain characteristics of their nervous system [11]. Five centuries before [PERSON], [PERSON] drew on at least twenty Italian words and expressions to refer to fear. In the Divina Commedia, the word fear appears, in fact 18 times in Inferno, 9 in Purgatorio and 3 in Paradiso. The frequency of use and its numerology indicate that [PERSON] intentionally chooses fear throughout the poem [110]. Especially in Inferno cantica, therefore, the supreme poet's intent seems to be to trigger fear in the reader, an intent captured and made manifest by L students who show more fear for Inferno than for Purgatorio and Paradiso. In contrast, for S students, no significant differences emerge for this emotion (Figure 7). Following the path of experience, therefore, it is always the in-depth knowledge of the text that allows us to grasp the poet's emotional communicative intent and what he first experienced since, as [PERSON] reports [111], [PERSON]'s salvific journey begins precisely through fear. In fact, everything begins with the fear experienced in the forest at the beginning of Inferno. For [PERSON], recounting his extraordinary otherworldly experience means, before anything else, to relive that anguish (Inf.