Abstract
Objective
To compare empathic responses to affective film clips in participants with traumatic
brain injury (TBI) and controls, and examine associations with affect recognition.
Design
Cross sectional study using a quasi-experimental design.
Setting
Multi-site study conducted at a postacute rehabilitation facility in the United States
and a university in Canada.
Participants
Adults (N=120) with moderate to severe TBI (n=60) and those without TBI (n=60), frequency
matched for age and sex. Average time postinjury was 14 years (range: .5-37).
Main Outcome Measures
Participants were shown affective film clips and asked to report how the main character
in the clip felt and how they personally felt in response to the clip. Empathic responses
were operationalized as participants feeling the same emotion they identified the
character to be feeling.
Results
Participants with TBI had lower emotion recognition scores (P=.007) and fewer empathic responses than controls (67% vs 79%; P<.001). Participants with TBI accurately identified and empathically responded to
characters’ emotions less frequently (65%) than controls (78%). Participants with
TBI had poorer recognition scores and fewer empathic responses to sad and fearful
clips compared to controls. Affect recognition was associated with empathic responses
in both groups (P<.001). When participants with TBI accurately recognized characters’ emotions, they
had an empathic response 71% of the time, which was more than double their empathic
responses for incorrectly identified emotions.
Conclusions
Participants with TBI were less likely to recognize and respond empathically to others’
expressions of sadness and fear, which has implications for interpersonal interactions
and relationships. This is the first study in the TBI population to demonstrate a
direct association between an affect stimulus and an empathic response.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
TBI (traumatic brain injury)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 22, 2018
Footnotes
Supported by Cannon Research Center at Carolinas Rehabilitation in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the Humanity Research Institute at Brock University.
Disclosures: none.
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
