GANDRA-BARTA FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF FACIAL EMOTION RECOGNITION IN ACQUIRED BRAIN INJURY

Abstract

[b]Background[/b][b]:[/b] Patients with acquired brain injury (ABI) may experience social difficulties more specifically in the emotional recognition of faces. The present research aims to test the discriminative validity of Gandra-BARTA to the changes in the emotional recognition of faces after ABI and to perceive its connection with the general cognitive functioning, executive functioning and other variables associated with ABI. [b]Material/ Methods: [/b]The sample consists of two groups, the Clinical Group (n=20, ABI participants) and the Control Group (n=16, healthy participants). All participants underwent a global cognitive assessment through the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), executive functioning was measured by INECO Frontal Screening and the evaluation of emotional recognition of faces through Gandra-BARTA.[b]Results: [/b]The results demonstrate that Gandra-BARTA presents discriminative capacity for the evaluation of the emotional recognition of faces in patients with acquired brain injury. We observed differences between the two groups in the capacity of emotional recognition especially in the identification of emotions such as anger, disgust, happiness and surprise. The study also shows the existence of a decline in the identification of emotions with age, in the recognition of the disgusting stimuli presents a deficit related to the age and executive functioning, while with the rage the decline is related to the age and schooling. The emotional recognition of faces presents improvements with time after injury. Identification of the neutral expression demonstrates an improvement over time after injury.[b]Conclusions:[/b]The discriminative ability of Gandra-BARTA allows it to be an instrument to be used in the evaluation of the emotional recognition of faces in patients with acquired brain injury. Individuals with brain injury have difficulties in identifying anger, disgust, happiness and surprise. Emotional recognition differs in relation to age, executive functioning, schooling, and time after injury.