A study by psychologists at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, has demonstrated the potential for the rehabilitation of emotion perception after brain injury. The report, published in the January edition of Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, is the first to examine the subject of emotion perception after TBI.
Social difficulties are a common feature of life after brain injury. A major reason for this is impairment of the ability to perceive the emotions and intentions of others, and therefore respond appropriately. However, rehabilitation of emotion perception has previously been overlooked in favour of the treatment of inappropriate behaviours and cognitive deficits.
The current study, by Bornhofen and Mcdonald, recruited twelve brain injured volunteers with chronic social difficulties. The volunteers were randomly allocated to two groups; one of which was given a treatment programme specifically designed to address emotion perception, while the other received no treatment. The treatment, consisting of fortnightly 1.5 hour sessions for eight weeks, utilised errorless learning and self-instruction techniques, and involved a progression of objectives for interpreting emotional cues in different contexts. The participants were assessed on standardised facial expression recognition tasks, before and after the treatment, to gauge the level of improvement.
The results showed that participants receiving treatment showed significant improvement compared to the control group, reporting greater confidence and ease in social interaction. More work needs to be done in this area, but this study provides an encouraging start.
Reference
Bornhofen, C. and Mcdonald, S. (2008) 'Treating deficits in emotion perception following traumatic brain injury',Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, vol.18, pp. 22-44.
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