INS NYC 2024 Program

Poster	Poster Session 05 Program Schedule 02/15/2024 02:30 pm - 03:45 pm Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60) Poster Session 05: Neuropsychiatry \| Addiction/Dependence \| Stress/Coping \| Emotional/Social Processes Final Abstract #17 Emotion recognition and perception in simple and complex social contexts in persons with hemispherectomy Mitchell Spezzaferri, Fuller Grad School of Psychology, Pasadena, United States Warren Brown, Fuller Grad School of Psychology, Pasadena, United States Lynn Paul, California Institute of Technologyr, Pasadena, United States Category: Behavioral Neurology/Cerebral Lateralization/Callosal Studies Keyword 1: laterality Keyword 2: emotional processes Keyword 3: social cognition Objective: We have previously presented long-term social cognitive outcomes in adults who underwent hemispherectomy (HE) for intractable epilepsy and found intact emotion perception but significantly worse social perception and cognitive performance compared to neurotypical controls (NT). This research aimed to investigate emotion perception by examining how emotional appraisals change when additional social information is added to conversational exchanges. The purpose is to see how accurately persons with HE can perceive emotionally latent information embedded within social contexts. Instead of inquiring about the intentions of the actors (e.g., social cognition), they were asked to identify how the actor was feeling during the conversations (e.g., emotion perception), focusing on how emotion perception changes as the cognitive demands for social cognition increase. Participants and Methods: Fifteen adults with HE and 16 NT completed the Thames Awareness of Social Inferences Task (TASIT; McDonald, Flanagan, & Rollins, 2010). All persons with HE (right-HE = 10) underwent surgery between 3 months to 16 years of ageand had FSIQ > 79 at the time of study. Components of the TASIT inquiring about emotion identification and perception were used to evaluate simple and complex emotional exchanges through videotaped vignettes of everyday conversations between actors. Specifically, we analyzed raw summative scores from emotional evaluation (Part 1), as well as responses to the “What do you think he (she) was feeling?” items of Parts 2 and 3. Due to group differences in FSIQ between HE and NT, this variable was used as a covariate in all analyses. Results: Repeated measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) of scores from Part 1 indicated no group difference between left-HE, right-HE and the NT group. Analysis for Part 2 items was conducted in the same way for 3 groups x 3 conditions (sincere, simple sarcasm, paradoxical sarcasm) and revealed only a significant overall group effect with not interaction of group by condition, F (2, 26) = 4.86, p = .016, η_p² = .265. Results for Part 3 items accounting for 3 groups x 2 actor intentions (lies, sarcasm) show similar findings indicating a significantly overall affect between the 3 groups but no interaction of group by condition, F (2, 26) = 5.49, p = .010, η_p² = .297. Conclusions: Persons with HE demonstrated no difficulty identifying basic emotional expressions. However, they were less able to correctly respond to questions about the emotional state of the actors on Parts 2 and 3, compared to the emotional identification prompts in Part 1. Even though HE patients were able to grasp the simple emotional exchanges, the introduction of deception and sarcasm into the conversation led to less accurate emotional appraisals. The interactive complexity of these tasks was more cognitive demanding, revealing diminished emotional perception abilities in HE when more social information was added to the conversation. Thus, single hemisphere processing appears adequate for simple emotion identification, but becomes less efficient and accurate in more complex social exchanges resulting in deficiencies in emotion perception.

Poster

02/15/2024
02:30 pm - 03:45 pm
Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60)

Poster Session 05: Neuropsychiatry | Addiction/Dependence | Stress/Coping | Emotional/Social Processes

Final Abstract #17

Emotion recognition and perception in simple and complex social contexts in persons with hemispherectomy

Mitchell Spezzaferri, Fuller Grad School of Psychology, Pasadena, United States
Warren Brown, Fuller Grad School of Psychology, Pasadena, United States
Lynn Paul, California Institute of Technologyr, Pasadena, United States

Category: Behavioral Neurology/Cerebral Lateralization/Callosal Studies

Keyword 1: laterality
Keyword 2: emotional processes
Keyword 3: social cognition

Objective:

We have previously presented long-term social cognitive outcomes in adults who underwent hemispherectomy (HE) for intractable epilepsy and found intact emotion perception but significantly worse social perception and cognitive performance compared to neurotypical controls (NT). This research aimed to investigate emotion perception by examining how emotional appraisals change when additional social information is added to conversational exchanges. The purpose is to see how accurately persons with HE can perceive emotionally latent information embedded within social contexts. Instead of inquiring about the intentions of the actors (e.g., social cognition), they were asked to identify how the actor was feeling during the conversations (e.g., emotion perception), focusing on how emotion perception changes as the cognitive demands for social cognition increase.

Participants and Methods:

Fifteen adults with HE and 16 NT completed the Thames Awareness of Social Inferences Task (TASIT; McDonald, Flanagan, & Rollins, 2010). All persons with HE (right-HE = 10) underwent surgery between 3 months to 16 years of ageand had FSIQ > 79 at the time of study. Components of the TASIT inquiring about emotion identification and perception were used to evaluate simple and complex emotional exchanges through videotaped vignettes of everyday conversations between actors. Specifically, we analyzed raw summative scores from emotional evaluation (Part 1), as well as responses to the “What do you think he (she) was feeling?” items of Parts 2 and 3. Due to group differences in FSIQ between HE and NT, this variable was used as a covariate in all analyses.

Results:

Repeated measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) of scores from Part 1 indicated no group difference between left-HE, right-HE and the NT group. Analysis for Part 2 items was conducted in the same way for 3 groups x 3 conditions (sincere, simple sarcasm, paradoxical sarcasm) and revealed only a significant overall group effect with not interaction of group by condition, F (2, 26) = 4.86, p = .016, η_p² = .265. Results for Part 3 items accounting for 3 groups x 2 actor intentions (lies, sarcasm) show similar findings indicating a significantly overall affect between the 3 groups but no interaction of group by condition, F (2, 26) = 5.49, p = .010, η_p² = .297.

Conclusions:

Persons with HE demonstrated no difficulty identifying basic emotional expressions. However, they were less able to correctly respond to questions about the emotional state of the actors on Parts 2 and 3, compared to the emotional identification prompts in Part 1. Even though HE patients were able to grasp the simple emotional exchanges, the introduction of deception and sarcasm into the conversation led to less accurate emotional appraisals. The interactive complexity of these tasks was more cognitive demanding, revealing diminished emotional perception abilities in HE when more social information was added to the conversation. Thus, single hemisphere processing appears adequate for simple emotion identification, but becomes less efficient and accurate in more complex social exchanges resulting in deficiencies in emotion perception.