Nonverbal Communication of Affect in Brain-Damaged Patients

Abstract

A slide viewing technique designed to assess spontaneous nonverbal expressiveness was administered to 37 male patients including 8 left hemisphere damaged (aphasic), 10 right hemisphere damaged, 9 Parkinson's disease, and 10 non brain-damaged (control) patients. Patients watched different types of affective slides while their facial/gestural responses were videotaped. Judges watching the video tapes without audio guessed the types of slide being viewed. Results indicated that aphasic patients were equal to or more expressive than controls, while right hemisphere damaged and Parkinson's disease patients were less expressive. The possibility that spontaneous non verbal expressiveness is mediated by the right cerebral hemisphere, with the left hemisphere playing an inhibitory role, was discussed as a tentative explanation.

Coverbal behavior of aphasic and right hemisphere damaged subjects in conversation

“…This leads to speculation that perhaps the communicative deficits of the RHD patient are more broadly based in a deficit of emotional expression rather than strictly a deficit in coverbal behavior. This theory would be supported by the research of Ross and Mesulam (1979), Buck and Duffy (1980), Hier et al (1983), Benowitz et al (1983), andGorelick andRoss (1987). These studies have all suggested the RHD patients have deficits in the ability to express emotion as well as in interpreting the emotional expression of others.…”

“…Several studies have noted that this group of patients particularly seems to display limited facial expressiveness (Buck & Duffy, 1980;and Benowitz, Bear, Rosenthal, Mesulam, Zaidel & Sperry, 1983). Other forms of nonverbal movements accompanying speech have not been examined among RHD subjects.…”

“…Buck and Duffy (1980) showed that judges consistently rated RHD patients as nearly as inexpressive in their facial expression as subjects with Parkinson's disease and much less expressive than aphasic subjects. Kirshner (1986) stated that RHD patients tend to be unemotional or apathetic, unself-conscious, and generally have a flat affect as opposed to left hemisphere damaged (LHD) patients.…”

Relationship between Mood State and Information Processing of Negative versus Positive Emotional Stimuli in Brain-Damaged Patients

“…As regards the latter, the idea of a global hemispheric cerebral dominance for all the emotions is giving way to that of differential cerebral dominance according to the affec tive properties of the emotions displayed. By contrast, little is known about the kind of relationship which links on one hand, a spe cific cognitive deficit of perception and, on the other, the verbal [7] or nonverbal [11] subjective expression of emotion and mood. In other words, the link between information processing of emotional material and the state of being glad or sad is still missing.…”

Pain's echo: Empathy and the social communication of pain.

“…Facial expression has been established as a valid form of nonverbal communication, accurately perceived in minute instances, and critical in situations involving pre-or nonverbal individuals, such as young children, the elderly, and persons with mental disabilities, as well as in situations where respondents may not provide candid or accurate self-report (Buck & Duffy, 1980;Clark, Winkielman, & McIntosh, 2008;Craig et al, 2011;Patrick, Craig, & Prkachin, 1986;Rosenthal, 1987;Whiten & Pemer, 1991). Accuracy at judging pain facial expression has been argued to be useful in diagnosis, as well as prescriptive in reducing disparities in pain treatment (Drwecki, Moore, Ward, & Prkachin, 2011;Prkachin, Currie, & Craig, 1983).…”