Emotional and neurocognitive functioning following traumatic brain injury, a multidimensional approach

by Allerdings, Marilee Dianne

Emotion is a cornplex process that plays an important role in ail hurnan behaviour. Traumatic brain injury (TH) can result in a wide range of sequelae, including neurocognitive and emotional deficits. Traditionally, therapeutic approaches have had a primarily cognitive focus. However, research has demonstrated that emotional deficits are ofken severe, pervasive, and long-lasting. This study utilized a multidimensional model of emotion to explore emotional and neurocognitive tiinctioning following TBI. Significant differences were found between the TB1 group and control group on measures of amracy of identification of facial emotion, alexithymia, depressive rnood, abnormal emotional expression (lack of insight into deficits, depression, mania, pragnosia, and inappropriateness), and neurocognitive fiinction. In addition, differential relationships were also found between neurocogntitive fûnction and the accuracy of identification of facial emotion based on group rnembership (TB1 vs. control). In the TB1 group accuracy of identification of facial emotion was associated with verbal ability, while it was related to visual-perceptual ability in the control group. Within the TB1 group significant relationships were found between the dimensions of emotional experience and expression, providing support for a multidimensionai model of emotion. However, the relationships between neurocognitive function and emotional perception seemed to supercede any relationships between emotional perception and experience, prompting the revision of the muItidimensional model, to include the mediating influence of neurocognitive function. Further exploration of emotion using this revised hework should be expanded to include additional measures of emotional perception (e-g., auditory emotion), and experience (e.g., physiological) in both neurologically intact and impaired individuals.