Recognition of emotion with temporal lobe epilepsy and asymmetrical amygdala damage.
OBJECTIVE
Impairments in emotion recognition occur when there is bilateral damage to the amygdala. In this study, ability to recognize auditory and visual expressions of emotion was investigated in people with asymmetrical amygdala damage (AAD) and temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).


METHODS
Recognition of five emotions was tested across three participant groups: those with right AAD and TLE, those with left AAD and TLE, and a comparison group. Four tasks were administered: recognition of emotion from facial expressions, sentences describing emotion-laden situations, nonverbal sounds, and prosody.


RESULTS
Accuracy scores for each task and emotion were analysed, and no consistent overall effect of AAD on emotion recognition was found. However, some individual participants with AAD were significantly impaired at recognizing emotions, in both auditory and visual domains.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings indicate that a minority of individuals with AAD have impairments in emotion recognition, but no evidence of specific impairments (e.g., visual or auditory) was found.
Fowler
Helen L
HL
Department of Behavioural Medicine, Hope Hospital, Stott Lane, Salford M6 8HD, UK. helen.fowler@srht.nhs.uk
Baker
Gus A
GA
Tipples
Jason
J
Hare
Dougal J
DJ
Keller
Simon
S
Chadwick
David W
DW
Young
Andrew W
AW
D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000473:pathology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001307:Auditory Perception; D004644:Emotions; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012938:Social Perception; D014796:Visual Perception