Examining the effect of spinal cord injury on emotional awareness, expressivity and memory for emotional material

Abstract

The prevailing view on the effects of spinal cord injury (SCI) on emotion is that it dampens emotional experience due to a loss of peripheral bodily feedback, with the higher the lesion on the spinal cord the greater the reduction in the intensity of emotional experience. This view persists despite many studies showing an absence of such an emotional impairment in people with SCI. This study specifically aimed to investigate whether total cervical-6 spinal cord transection (i) reduces emotional expressivity and emotional awareness (ii) impairs memory for emotional material. The study contained three groups: 24 patients with SCI, 20 orthopaedic injury control (OIC) patients and 20 young adult controls. A mixed factor design was employed to examine between group and within subject differences. Participants completed the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS), the Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire (BEQ), and viewed an emotionally arousing slide presentation. Thirty minutes post viewing, participants completed memory tests for the presentation. SCI patients reported greater present levels of emotional expressivity compared with perceived levels prior to their injuries. SCI and OIC groups did not differ on any of the emotional awareness variables. There was also no evidence that SCI leads to impairment in memory for emotional events. This study's findings contradict the mainstream view in the cognitive neuroscience of emotion that SCI dampens emotional experience.

Dissociation of fear initiation and maintenance by breathing-driven prefrontal oscillations

“…This model enables the James-Lange theory to be reconciled with the objections raised by Walter Cannon and subsequent reports of inconsistent changes in emotion under impaired bodily feedback (9)(10)(11)(12). Indeed, in our framework the bodily expression of emotions is part of a regulatory feedback loop which is crucial for the stabilization of the emotional state, in spite of an independent process of initiation.…”

“…Changes in somatic physiology are strongly correlated with emotional state (3)(4)(5) and more importantly they show evidence of influencing various aspects of emotional cognition (6)(7)(8). However, the mixed and often subtle effects of the lack of bodily feedback on emotions, as initially highlighted by lesion studies in animal separating the viscera from the brain and then in human studies of spinal cord lesion patients, is a strong challenge to the claim that somatic modifications have an active role to play (9)(10)(11)(12). Any such role is therefore unlikely to be in the genesis of emotion itself but instead will probably be restricted to the regulation of more subtle aspects of emotional cognition.…”

“…The respiratory rhythm can vary across multiple behavior states (19,30) over a large range of frequencies (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12), raising the question of whether the impact on PFC activity during freezing is frequency-specific. We found that single units in the PFC were entrained more strongly and in larger numbers by the respiratory rhythm during freezing than during the active state (Fig4A, FigS7D,E see FigS7A-C for detailed methodology).…”

Oral administration of the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale

“…The LEAS has become increasingly popular in emotion regulation research. Since 2010, it has been used in studies on attachment (Subic‐Wrana, Beetz, Wiltink, & Beutel, ), risk‐taking (Brejard, Pasquier, Bonnet, & Pedinielli, ), gambling (Pascual‐Leone, Gomes, Orr, Kaploun, & Abeare, ), alcohol and substance dependence (Bochand & Nandrino, ; Carton et al., ), anorexia nervosa (Parling, Mortazavi, & Ghaderi, ), mood disorders (Pasquier & Pedinielli, ), somatoform disorders (Subic‐Wrana, Beutel, Knebel, & Lane, ), hypertension (Consoli et al., ), and spinal cord injury (Deady, North, Allan, Smith, & O'Carroll, ).…”

Positive and negative affect in individuals with spinal cord injuries

“…8 Initial interview-based studies of SCI patients were consistent with this view, with patients reporting that emotions felt more cognitive and less visceral than before their injury. 9 However, reduced emotionality was not reported in recent studies, 10,11 thereby challenging the position that SCIs dampen all affective experiences. The goal of the current study was to assess both positive and negative affect in order to more precisely characterize the subjective emotional well-being of individuals with SCIs.…”