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Neurobiological mechanisms associated with facial affect recognition deficits after traumatic brain injury

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Abstract

The neurobiological mechanisms that underlie facial affect recognition deficits after traumatic brain injury (TBI) have not yet been identified. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), study aims were to 1) determine if there are differences in brain activation during facial affect processing in people with TBI who have facial affect recognition impairments (TBI-I) relative to people with TBI and healthy controls who do not have facial affect recognition impairments (TBI-N and HC, respectively); and 2) identify relationships between neural activity and facial affect recognition performance. A facial affect recognition screening task performed outside the scanner was used to determine group classification; TBI patients who performed greater than one standard deviation below normal performance scores were classified as TBI-I, while TBI patients with normal scores were classified as TBI-N. An fMRI facial recognition paradigm was then performed within the 3T environment. Results from 35 participants are reported (TBI-I = 11, TBI-N = 12, and HC = 12). For the fMRI task, TBI-I and TBI-N groups scored significantly lower than the HC group. Blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals for facial affect recognition compared to a baseline condition of viewing a scrambled face, revealed lower neural activation in the right fusiform gyrus (FG) in the TBI-I group than the HC group. Right fusiform gyrus activity correlated with accuracy on the facial affect recognition tasks (both within and outside the scanner). Decreased FG activity suggests facial affect recognition deficits after TBI may be the result of impaired holistic face processing. Future directions and clinical implications are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Ruben Gur and his colleagues for generously sharing their fMRI neuroimaging facial affect recognition task. This research was funded by the Indiana University Collaborative Research Grant fund of the Office of the Vice President for Research and by the Indiana University Signature Center: Brain Rehabilitation, Advanced Imaging, and Neuroscience.

Conflicts of interest

Dawn Neumann, Brenna C. McDonald, John West, Michelle A. Keiski, and Yang Wang declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Compliance with ethical standards

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Indiana University Institutional Review Board and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1964, and the applicable revisions at the time of the investigation. Informed consent was obtained from all participants for being included in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana, Indiana University School of Medicine, 4141 Shore Drive, Indianapolis, IN, 46254, USA

    Dawn Neumann

  2. Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Indiana University Center for Neuroimaging, Indiana University School of Medicine, 355 W. 16th St., GH Suite 4100, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA

    Brenna C. McDonald & John West

  3. Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Indiana University Center for Neuroimaging, Indiana University School of Medicine, 355 W. 16th St., GH Suite 4100, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA

    Michelle A. Keiski

  4. Department of Radiology, Department of Biophysics, Medical College of Wisconsin, 8701 Watertown Plank Road, Milwaukee, WI, 53226, USA

    Yang Wang

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  1. Dawn Neumann
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Correspondence to Dawn Neumann.

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Neumann, D., McDonald, B.C., West, J. et al. Neurobiological mechanisms associated with facial affect recognition deficits after traumatic brain injury. Brain Imaging and Behavior 10, 569–580 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-015-9415-3

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