Recognition of Nonverbal Communication of Affect Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Recognition of facial expressions and vocal prosody was examined using the Diagnostic Assessment of Nonverbal Accuracy 2 (DANVA-2) and the Carolina Older Adult Test of Nonverbal Communication (COAT-NC) for 24 individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and 24 matched controls. Results demonstrated that participants without TBI scored significantly higher than participants with TBI when presented with adult photo and voice stimuli. No significant group difference was noted with child photo and voice stimuli. Both groups scored significantly higher on photo subtests than on voice subtests for child and younger adult stimuli. For older adult stimuli, both groups scored significantly higher on the voice subtest than on the photo subtest. For the subjects with TBI, a significant relationship was found between scores on the voice subtests and a functional measure of cognition and communication.