RESUMEN
The processing of social information transmitted by facial stimuli is altered in individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study investigated whether these alterations also affect the mechanisms underlying the orienting of visual attention in response to eye-gaze signals. TBI patients and a control group of healthy individuals matched on relevant criteria completed a spatial cueing task. In this task, a lateral visual target was presented along with a task-irrelevant face, with the gaze averted to the left or right. Arrows pointing towards the left or right were also used as non-social control stimuli. Social cognition abilities were further investigated through tests based on decoding emotional expressions and mental states conveyed by facial stimuli. The decoding of emotions and mental states was worse in the TBI group than in the control group. However, both groups demonstrated reliable and comparable orienting of attention to both eye-gaze and arrow stimuli. Despite impairments in certain aspects of social face processing among TBI patients, gaze cueing of attention appears to be preserved in this neuropsychological population.
Asunto(s)
Atención , Señales (Psicología) , Emociones , Expresión Facial , Reconocimiento Facial , Fijación Ocular , Humanos , Masculino , Adulto , Femenino , Atención/fisiología , Emociones/fisiología , Reconocimiento Facial/fisiología , Fijación Ocular/fisiología , Percepción Social , Persona de Mediana Edad , Adulto Joven , Lesiones Traumáticas del Encéfalo/psicología , Lesiones Traumáticas del Encéfalo/fisiopatología , Lesiones Traumáticas del Encéfalo/complicaciones , Estimulación Luminosa , Pruebas NeuropsicológicasRESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate explicit moral and socio-conventional knowledge in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) patients. METHOD: A group of 28 TBI patients was tested on a new set of moral and socio-conventional items. Responses of TBI patients were compared with those of 28 matched controls. Participants had to report how hard would be to perform specific moral or socio-conventional transgressions, using a 10-point Likert scale. We analyzed our data through mixed-effects models, to jointly assess by-participants and by-items variance. The factors considered were Type of Item (Moral vs. Socio-conventional) and Group (TBI vs. Controls). RESULTS: Results revealed a significant interaction between Type of Item and Group (χ2[1] = 25.5, p < .001). Simple-effects analyses showed that TBI, as Controls, were able to differentiate moral and socio-conventional transgressions (χ2[1] = 72.3, p < .001), as they deemed the former as more difficult to enact. TBI patients, however, evaluated moral transgressions as easier to fulfill (χ2[1] = 12.2, p = .001). CONCLUSIONS: TBI patients can clearly differentiate moral and socio-conventional transgressions, suggesting that the explicit knowledge of these two dimensions is spared. TBI patients, however, considered moral transgressions as easier to fulfill with respect to Controls. This finding may suggest a tendency in TBI patients to underestimate the weight of moral transgressions.