Channels of emotional expression in patients with unilateral brain damage

The contribution of facial, intonational, and speech channels to spontaneous emotional expression was examined in right brain-damaged (RBD), left brain-damaged (LBD), and normal control (NC) subjects. Subjects were videotaped while viewing and responding to a series of emotionally laden slides; the videotapes were then rated for the three channels of communication. Overall, RBDs used facial expression and intonation less frequently than the other two groups. When the speech output channel was analyzed, oral expression of feelings in the RBDs, relative to the LBDs and NCs, was less appropriate, more propositional than prosodic, and more descriptive than affective. When the ratings for the three channels of communication were examined, facial expression and intonation were significantly correlated for all subjects.