Search

Background: Dysarthria, aphasia and executive processes have been examined for their role in producing impaired communicative competence post traumatic brain injury (TBI). Less understood is the role of emotional dysregulation, that is, apathy and disinhibition, and social cognition, that is, reading and interpreting social cues. Methods & Procedures: In this study, we examined 49 adults with moderate to severe TBI and 18 neurologically healthy adults. We hypothesised that apathy and disinhibition would predict communication outcomes as would social cognition. We also predicted that apathy and disinhibition would influence social cognition. Communication outcomes were measured by the La Trobe Communication Questionnaire (LCQ) and the Social Skills Questionnaire‐TBI (SSQ‐TBI). Apathy and disinhibition were measured by the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale (FrSBe). We measured four aspects of social cognition: emotion perception and theory of mind using The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT) and the Complex Audio‐Visual Evaluation of Affect Test (CAVEAT), empathy using the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE) and the Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES), and alexithymia using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS‐20) and the Bermond–Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire. Outcomes & Results: Consistent with predictions, the LCQ and SSQ‐TBI were associated with disinhibition and the LCQ was also associated with apathy. The LCQ was associated with the full range of social cognition constructs although the SSQ‐TBI was not. Finally, apathy and disinhibition predicted a number of social cognition measures. Conclusions and Implications: These results are discussed in relation to understanding the nature of communication disorders following TBI and how they are measured, as well as the interrelation between emotion dysregulation and social cognition. What this study adds: What is already known on this subject: The role of emotional dysregulation and social cognition in producing impaired communicative competence post traumatic brain injury (TBI) is not well understood. Although most adults with severe TBI have minimal or possibly no language impairment, they often struggle with functional communication in everyday situations. Many have been reported to be overtalkative, insensitive, childish and self‐centred, displaying an inappropriate level of self‐disclosure and making tangential and irrelevant comments. Conversely, some speakers with TBI have been noted to have impoverished communication, producing little language either spontaneously or in response to the speaker's questions and prompts. What this paper adds to existing knowledge: We found that both apathy and disinhibition were strongly associated with the Latrobe Communication Questionnaire both empirically and conceptually, despite the LCQ being developed from a different, pragmatic orientation. Disinhibition was also associated with the Social Skills Questionnaire for TBI. We also found that poor social cognition scores predicted communication difficulties. Finally, we found that behavioural dysregulation itself, i.e., both apathy and disinhibition, predicted poor social cognition. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?: Our findings highlight the central role that apathy and disinhibition play in both communication and social cognition. These insights point to the importance of remediation to target behavioural and autonomic dysregulation as a means to improve everyday social function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the product of not always rational human thought, emotions are either excluded from or considered to be barriers to effective invasive species management. In a context where fish are still disregarded, in this paper I consider the affective and emotional geographies of the world's most broadly distributed freshwater fish, carp (Cyprinus carpio) in Australia, in emerging sites of management that involve killing. Invasive species management is yet to reconcile emotion and the affective politics of killing invasive animals as a normative and ongoing practice of care for the environment. This paper advances animal geographies by developing a conceptual understanding of the biopolitics of invasive life and invasive species management by thinking through carp as affective and emotional subjects. To do this I look to feminist approaches that conceptualise emotion as relational, including Ahmed's analysis of emotion as movement, and visceral geographies' extension of embodied meaning‐making beyond the human. Drawing on original empirical analysis of managing carp, I identify how carp are performed as collectively disgusting or monstrous objects and how emotions are submerged and people can become indifferent to, or "pull away" from, ethical deliberation. However, attending to affect and emotion beyond the human subject also allows carp to emerge as different kinds of "spooky" subjects who, through conflicting, constantly changing, and more‐than‐invasive relationships, resist singular and hegemonic understandings. Taking a feminist approach allows me to consider how carp have affective biopolitical agency, in life and death, across these multiple subjectivities with power to transform human relationships with nature by situating and re‐engaging people in the problems of the world. Indeed, I argue that it is through the affective and emotional practices of managing carp that people might also begin to apprehend their responsibilities and limitations in the Anthropocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Walking fosters self‐efficacy, empathy, and connection, and large and small democratic actions. Such capacity seems especially the case when walking is attended by certain spatial qualities that engender, for instance, physical accessibility, a capacity to socialise, a sense of safety, or a pleasing aesthetic. Sometimes, adverse spatial alternatives dominate and then – at very least – indifference seems to loom large and spatial injustices prevail. And in the worst conditions, indifference and injustice tip over into fear and danger. This paper's orientation is towards optimism, however. Our conceptual focus is on the relationship of walking to geography and philosophical pragmatism, and on small and effective antidotes to indifference and injustice. Our empirical contributions come from a qualitative research project in Wollongong, Australia, and specifically from conversations with 25 adult residents who shared with us their experiences of regular walks in the city centre. We interpret those experiences in pragmatic terms as transactions – or experiments in what to do and how – in relation to self, others, and environs. We show how participants are affected by walks and the transactional spaces created by them, and consider how they come to care for things that might not directly concern or affect them. In the process, we discern that they experience how their actions shape and can enrich life in the city – findings that have wider salience for those interested in spatial qualities, spatial justice, and democratising impulses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]