Sensitivity to Emotional Cues and Social Behavior in Children and Adolescents After Head Injury

This was an exploratory investigation of the relationship between sensitivity to emotional cues and social functioning in 20 head-injured children and adolescents (median coma 7.5 days) and 20 controls who had sustained other accidental injuries. Median age was 12.8 yr. (range = 5 to 16 years). Sensitivity to fundamental facial expressions and both visual and verbal context cues to emotion was measured. Analysis indicated that head-injured subjects were impaired relative to controls on a global index of emotion interpretation ability. A significant number of head-injured subjects also made errors confusing positive and negative emotions and errors interpreting emotionally toned vignettes. Results of a parent questionnaire indicated that head-injured subjects exhibit less appropriate social behavior than controls. The data showed a strong trend for global ability to interpret emotion to predict social behavior.