Empathy and anger response 'linked to traumatic brain injury'RSS Feed

The lack of empathy seen in some traumatic brain injury patients could be linked to a reduced responsiveness to anger, a new study shows.

Research published in journal Elsevier's Cortex measured empathy of a group of individuals with traumatic brain injury and a group without through the use of a questionnaire.

Activation of facial muscles and sweat glands were also measured in response to happy and angry patients.

It was found that the control group spontaneously mimicked the emotional facial expressions they saw, while the traumatic brain injury group were generally less responsive, as well as scoring lower in the empathy questionnaire.

Author Arielle De Sousa, of the University of New South Wales, Australia, said: "This has important implications for understanding the impaired social functioning and poor quality of interpersonal relationships commonly seen as a consequence of TBI, and may be key to comprehending and treating empathy deficits post-injury."

Meanwhile, research published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine found that people working in the construction industry were most at risk of traumatic brain injury.

Serious Law, award winning brain injury law firm

Posted by John Sherrington
 

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