Inner speech and Emotion Regulation after brain injury

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  The impact of Inner Speech impairment in Emotion Regulation after Acquired Brain Damage

• IRAS ID

  163224

• Contact name

  Oliver Turnbull

• Contact email

  o.turnbull@bangor.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Bangor University

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 11 months, 29 days

• Research summary

  Many people with acquired brain injury present with difficulties in their capacity to regulate emotions. It has been observed by clinicians that such a deficit may impact socio-emotional adjustment and compromise successful rehabilitation. Unfortunately, there has been little research on this subject to inform clinicians' work. Only recently, a couple of studies -from our laboratory- have offered some insight into this matter, by describing how two emotion regulation strategies [Re-appraisal: positive re-interpretation of negative events; Response Suppression: manipulation of emotional facial expressions] are impaired after brain damage.
  The main goal of this new study is to further explore the impact of brain damage on emotion regulation. Specifically, we are interested in finding out whether the use of emotion regulation strategies in people with brain damage is mediated by impairment on a psychological function called inner speech. Inner speech refers to the act of talking to ourselves silently in our heads, and is commonly compromised after damage to the left prefrontal cortex and also after diffuse injuries. In this study individuals with damage to the left prefrontal cortex [N= 23] and individuals with traumatic brain injury [N = 23], two populations that present problems of inner speech- will be tested on a set of inner speech and emotion regulation tasks. A group of individuals with no brain damage [N = 23] will be used as controls. The main question is: do individuals that present marked problems of inner speech also present impairment in the use of emotion regulation strategies? In the second part of this project four individuals with marked inner speech impairment will be investigated in detail in a series of in depth single case studies. Here the main question is: Do Individuals with marked inner speech impairment report subjective difficulties using thinking as a source of emotion regulation?

• REC name

  Wales REC 5

• REC reference

  15/WA/0012

• Date of REC Opinion

  16 Jan 2015

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion