This is a part of the podcast series from the Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center on Irritability, Anger, and Aggression after TBI. Dr. Dawn Neumann discusses research on reading non-verbal cues after TBI. 

In my own research, we are looking at how people with brain injury are judging other people's behaviors and how this might be contributing to their irritability and aggression. We are also looking at the way that they are interpreting nonverbal cues, so being able to read their loved one's facial expressions, and being able to interpret that. And we know that from the research that we've been doing that people with a brain injury often misread how their loved ones are feeling, and very frequently will see anger when there's no anger present. So imagine actually if you were coming home to your loved one who was looking very sad and deflated and really needed to be comforted, and instead you come home and you see your loved one, but you think that this person now is angry, your first reaction is going to be defensive. And this can actually lean to irritability and aggression amongst a couple. We also are looking at research that examines how well people with brain injury can process their own emotions and how aware they are of what they are feeling. And in this research we're finding that people with a brain injury often lack the awareness and recognition and insight into their own feelings. And when you don't know how you're feeling, it's really difficult to be able to control something that you don't know. 

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