Disinhibition, rather than moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury, moderates the impact of anger provocation on subjective emotional experience.

Abstract

Objective: Altered reactivity to emotional stimuli is common after traumatic brain injury (TBI), which is suggested to reflect difficulties with emotion regulation. While disinhibition is common after moderate-to-severe TBI, limited research has investigated the link between disinhibition and emotional reactivity in this clinical group. The aim of this research, therefore, was to investigate the relationship between disinhibition and TBI to anger provocation.

Method: Thirty-five individuals with moderate-to-severe TBI and thirty-one controls completed an anger induction task. Participants rated their experience of emotions and subjective arousal before and after the induction. Heart rate, respiration and skin conductance were also measured. Disinhibition was measured using the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale.

Results: In the full sample, the mood induction led to increased skin conductance, respiration, and self-reported anger, tension, arousal and negative mood. There were no differences between those with TBI and controls. Disinhibition interacted with the impact of anger provocation on subjective, but not objective, outcomes such that those elevated in disinhibition reported increased feelings of anger and tension in response to the mood induction. Disinhibition did not interact with TBI across any subjective and objective emotional measures examined in response to mood induction.

Conclusions: While anger causes emotional changes for all individuals, these changes are particularly pronounced among those who are disinhibited, irrespective of whether an individual has sustained a TBI. This is an important consideration when examining emotional regulation post-TBI as the degree of disinhibition appears to alter subjective interpretations of emotional events, which could lead to emotion dysregulation.