TBI Decreases Facial Affect Recognition

A major problem for some survivors of TBI is recognizing what emotions other people are experiencing based on their facial expressions. This impairs work and social relationships. A meta-analysis published in the summer 2011 issue of Neuropsychology examined the magnitude of facial affect recognition difficulties after TBI. Effect sizes were calculated from 13 studies that compared adults with moderate to severe TBI to matched healthy controls on static measures of facial affect recognition. The studies collectively presented data from 296 adults with TBI and 296 matched controls and results showed that between 13% and 39% of people with moderate to severe TBI have significant difficulties with facial affect recognition depending on the cut-off criterion used.