Working memory for emotions in adolescents and young adults with traumatic brain injury

Objective: The objective of this preliminary study was to investigate the interaction between working memory and social cognition in adolescents and young adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI). It was hypothesized that participants with or without TBI would better recognize social information when working memory or social cognitive load was low and that adolescents and young adults with TBI would be more affected by increased cognitive demand than their uninjured peers. Design: In this experimental study, eight adolescents and young adults with complicated mild-severe TBI (aged 14-22 years) and eight age- and sex-matched typically developing (TD) adolescents completed computer-based n-back tasks requiring recognition of either face identity or facial affect, with 0-back, 1-back and 2-back conditions. Results: The TBI group had lower scores overall than the TD group, and scores for both groups were lower for affect recognition than identity recognition. Scores for both groups were lower in conditions with a higher working memory load. There was a significant group by working memory interaction, with larger group differences in high-working memory conditions. Conclusions: Adolescents and young adults with TBI are at risk for social cognitive impairments and the ability to recognize affect may be influenced by working memory demands.