Detection of text-based social cues in adults with traumatic brain injury

Attentional Orienting and Disfluency-Related Memory Boost Are Intact in Adults With Moderate-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

PURPOSE

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with a range of cognitive-communicative deficits that interfere with everyday communication and social interaction. Considerable effort has been directed at characterizing the nature and scope of cognitive-communication disorders in TBI, yet the underlying mechanisms of impairment are largely unspecified. The present research examines sensitivity to a common communicative cue, disfluency, and its impact on memory for spoken language in TBI.

METHOD

Fifty-three participants with moderate-severe TBI and 53 noninjured comparison participants listened to a series of sentences, some of which contained disfluencies. A subsequent memory test probed memory for critical words in the sentences.

RESULTS

Participants with TBI successfully remembered the spoken words (b = 1.57, p < .0001) at a similar level to noninjured comparison participants. Critically, participants with TBI also exhibited better recognition memory for words preceded by disfluency compared to words from fluent sentences (b = 0.57, p = .02).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings advance mechanistic accounts of cognitive-communication disorder by revealing that, when isolated for experimental study, individuals with moderate-severe TBI are sensitive to attentional orienting cues in speech and exhibit enhanced recognition of individual words preceded by disfluency. These results suggest that some aspects of cognitive-communication disorders may not emerge from an inability to perceive and use individual communication cues, but rather from disruptions in managing (i.e., attending, weighting, integrating) multiple cognitive, communicative, and social cues in complex and dynamic interactions. This hypothesis warrants further investigation.

Designing evidence-based support aids for social media access for individuals with moderate-severe traumatic brain injury: A preliminary acceptability study

Background

Adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) report significant barriers to using current social media platforms, including cognitive overload and challenges in interpreting social cues. Rehabilitation providers may be tasked with helping to address these barriers.

Objectives

To develop technological supports to increase social media accessibility for people with TBI-related cognitive impairments and to obtain preliminary data on the perceived acceptability, ease of use, and utility of proposed technology aids.

Methods

We identified four major barriers to social media use among individuals with TBI: sensory overload, memory impairments, misreading of social cues, and a lack of confidence to actively engage on social media platforms. We describe the process of developing prototypes of support aids aimed at reducing these specific social media barriers. We created mock-ups of these prototypes and asked 46 community-dwelling adults with TBI (24 females) to rate the proposed aids in terms of their acceptability, ease of use, and utility.

Results

Across all aids, nearly one-third of respondents agreed they would use the proposed aids frequently, and the majority of respondents rated the proposed aids as easy to use. Respondents indicated that they would be more likely to use the memory and post-writing aids than the attention and social cue interpretation aids.

Conclusions

Findings provide initial support for social-media-specific technology aids to support social media access and social participation for adults with TBI. Results from this study have design implications for future development of evidence-based social media support aids. Future work should develop and deploy such aids and investigate user experience.

Computer-Mediated Communication in Adults With and Without Moderate-to-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: Survey of Social Media Use

BACKGROUND

Individuals with a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) report fewer social contacts, less social participation, and more social isolation than noninjured peers. Cognitive-communication disabilities may prevent individuals with TBI from accessing the opportunities for social connection afforded by computer-mediated communication, as individuals with TBI report lower overall usage of social media than noninjured peers and substantial challenges with accessibility and usability. Although adaptations for individuals with motor and sensory impairments exist to support social media use, there have been no parallel advances to support individuals with cognitive disabilities, such as those exhibited by some people with TBI. In this study, we take a preliminary step in the development process by learning more about patterns of social media use in individuals with TBI as well as their input and priorities for developing social media adaptations.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to characterize how and why adults with TBI use social media and computer-mediated communication platforms, to evaluate changes in computer-mediated communication after brain injury, and to elicit suggestions from individuals with TBI to improve access to social media after injury.

METHODS

We conducted a web-based survey of 53 individuals with a chronic history of moderate-to-severe TBI and a demographically matched group of 51 noninjured comparison peers.

RESULTS

More than 90% of participants in both groups had an account on at least one computer-mediated communication platform, with Facebook and Facebook Messenger being the most popular platforms in both groups. Participants with and without a history of TBI reported that they use Facebook more passively than actively and reported that they most frequently maintain web-based relationships with close friends and family members. However, participants with TBI reported less frequently than noninjured comparison participants that they use synchronous videoconferencing platforms, are connected with acquaintances on the web, or use social media as a gateway for offline social connection (eg, to find events). Of the participants with TBI, 23% (12/53) reported a change in their patterns of social media use caused by brain injury and listed concerns about accessibility, safety, and usability as major barriers.

CONCLUSIONS

Although individuals with TBI maintain social media accounts to the same extent as healthy comparisons, some may not use them in a way that promotes social connection. Thus, it is important to design social media adaptations that address the needs and priorities of individuals with TBI, so they can also reap the benefits of social connectedness offered by these platforms. By considering computer-mediated communication as part of individuals' broader social health, we may be able to increase web-based participation in a way that is meaningful, positive, and beneficial to broader social life.

“If I knew what I was doing on Twitter then I would use it more”: Twitter experiences and networks of people with traumatic brain injury (TBI)

Aim:

of this study was to examine the Twitter experiences and networks of six adults with cognitive-communication disability after a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Method:

Using mixed methods, the study integrated: (a) quantitative analysis of Twitter networks using computational and manual coding of tweets; and (b) narrative analysis of in-depth interviews.

Results:

Diverse experiences were evident, with two experienced and four novice users of the platform. However, all reported feeling connected and included, and identified both positive and negative experiences in their use of Twitter. Developing a supportive network facilitated higher frequency of tweets and increased feelings of enjoyment and connectedness. All expressed a desire to continue using or learning to use Twitter but novices lacked support from rehabilitation professionals or experienced Twitter users, and relied instead on a “trial and error” approach.

Conclusion:

Proactive integration of Twitter use during rehabilitation after TBI is warranted to support safe, enjoyable, and meaningful use.

Social-cue perception and mentalizing ability following traumatic brain injury: A human-robot interaction study

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE

Research studies and clinical observations of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) indicate marked deficits in mentalizing-perceiving social information and integrating it into judgements about the affective and mental states of others. The current study investigates social-cognitive mechanisms that underlie mentalizing ability to advance our understanding of social consequences of TBI and inform the development of more effective clinical interventions.

RESEARCH DESIGN

The study followed a mixed-design experiment, manipulating the presence of a mentalizing gaze cue across trials and participant population (TBI vs. healthy comparisons).

METHODS AND PROCEDURES

Participants, 153 adults, 74 with moderate-severe TBI and 79 demographically matched healthy comparison peers, were asked to judge a humanoid robot's mental state based on precisely controlled gaze cues presented by the robot and apply those judgements to respond accurately on the experimental task.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND RESULTS

Results showed that, contrary to our hypothesis, the social cues improved task performance in the TBI group but not the healthy comparison group.

CONCLUSIONS

Results provide evidence that, in specific contexts, individuals with TBI can perceive, correctly recognize, and integrate dynamic gaze cues and motivate further research to understand why this ability may not translate to day-to-day social interactions.

Response to text-based social cues in the formation of causal attributions in adults with traumatic brain injury

BACKGROUND

Adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) may have deficits recognizing spoken social cues, with major negative social consequences. We do not know if these deficits extend to written social cues. Written cues, such as letterhead, provide information we use to make critical inferences about an author's perspective, and interpret subsequent text considering that perspective, and thus are critical for social communication. This study examined response to written social cues in adults with and without TBI.

METHODS AND PROCEDURES

We asked adults with TBI (n = 38) and uninjured adults (n = 20) to read an article describing actions of a mass murderer and give reasons for the those actions. Materials were presented on letterhead from either a social or a personality institute, to bias responses to either situational or dispositional factors. We hypothesized persons with TBI would be less likely to show bias consistent with the letterhead.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND RESULTS

Significantly more comparison-group responses (72%) than TBI-group responses (52%) were biased (p = 0.01) to match the institute in the letterhead.

CONCLUSIONS

Results indicated reduced sensitivity to written social cues in adults with TBI. Our findings add to evidence of impaired social cue response after TBI, and extend this to written text.