Impaired Recognition of Dynamic Body Expressions After Right Hemisphere Damage

• Published in: Psychology & Neuroscience 2022-06, Vol.15 (2), p.186-197
• Main Authors: Leiva, Samanta, Micciulli, Andrea, Ferreres, Aldo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Body Language; Brain Damage; Emotion Recognition; Facial Expressions; Female; Human; Male; Right Hemisphere; Social Perception
• ISSN: 1984-3054; 1983-3288
• DOI: 10.1037/pne0000272

Objective: Studies of patients with right hemisphere damage (RHD) have consistently found impairments to their ability to recognize emotions from facial expressions and prosodic cues. However, there is no consensus as to whether these deficits extend to other types of emotional expression such as body movements. The objective of this study was to compare the performances of RHD patients and a healthy control group at recognizing basic and complex emotions from dynamic facial and bodily expressions. Method: We evaluated 17 adult RHD patients whose lesions had occurred at least 6 months previously and 17 healthy control subjects. Four emotional tests were given using dynamic facial and bodily expression stimuli for basic and complex emotions and two nonemotional tests for facial perception and identification of nonemotional bodily movements. Results: The results showed that RHD patients performed worse than the control group at all emotion recognition tests for both facial and bodily expressions. Positive correlations were observed between the four emotional tests for the whole sample and for the RHD group. Finally, there were no significant differences between the RHD patients and the control group in the two nonemotional tests. Conclusions: The results of the study suggest that impairments to emotion recognition in RHD patients are not limited to facial expressions but also include bodily expressions of different types of emotions. These findings underscore the importance of extending characterizations of patients' emotion recognition skills beyond facial expressions. Public Significance Statement This study shows that adults who acquire right hemisphere brain damage present impairments to their ability to recognize emotions expressed through various types of gestures, including facial expressions and body movements. Describing emotion recognition impairments in patients with acquired brain damage such as those described in this study is fundamental to better understanding their cognitive impairments and providing them appropriate care and assistance in recovering and reintegrating into their communities.