title: Recognition of nonverbal communication of emotion after traumatic brain injury.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Individuals who have had a traumatic brain injury (TBI) often have difficulty processing nonverbal communication (Ekman, 1976) The published research in this area has focused on a TBI patient's ability to recognize facial expression, vocal intonation, and postural expression (Croker, 2005; Hopkins, Dywan & Segalowitz, 2002).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study compared the non-verbal processing skills of brain-injured patients versus non-injured controls in all three domains.
  
  
  METHODS
  The stimuli were photographs of facial and postural expressions and audio recordings of intonational expressions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results indicated that persons with TBI have particular difficulty recognizing non-verbal communication resulting from vocal intonations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The TBI patients had difficulty processing tonality, therefore, it is reasonable to suggest that clinicians, friends, and family members should emphasize the explicit verbal content of spoken language when speaking to a person with TBI.
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bird
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, Towson University, Towson, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Rick
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Parente
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005868:Gestures; D006801:Humans; D009633:Nonverbal Communication / Q000523:psychology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology
keywords: Emotion recognition; brain injury; cognitive rehabilitation; nonverbal communication