title: Sensitivity to emotional cues and social behavior in children and adolescents after head injury.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN 55415.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pettersen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003463:Cues; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D016489:Head Injuries, Closed / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D019965:Neurocognitive Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment