James Tonks

The Social Treatment: The Benefits of Group Interventions in Residential Care Settings

We report findings from an intervention study that investigates the impact of group reminiscence (GR) and individual reminiscence (IR) activities on older adults living in care settings. This research aimed to provide a theory-driven evaluation of reminiscence based on a social identity framework. This framework predicts better health outcomes for group-based interventions as a result of their capacity to create a sense of shared social identification among participants. A total of 73 residents, living in either standard or specialized (i.e., dementia) care units, were randomly assigned to one of three interventions: GR (n = 29), IR (n = 24), and a group control activity (n = 20). The intervention took place over 6 weeks, and cognitive screening and well-being measures were administered both pre- and post-intervention. Results indicated that only the group interventions produced effective outcomes and that these differed as a modality-specific function of condition: Collective recollection of past memories enhanced memory performance, and engaging in a shared social activity enhanced well-being. Theoretically, these findings point to the important role that group membership plays in maintaining and promoting health and well-being.

Traumatic brain injury in a prison population: prevalence and risk for re-offending.

Background: TBI can lead to cognitive, behavioural and emotional difficulties. Previous studies suggest that TBI is relatively elevated in offender populations. In this study the aims were to establish the rate of TBI of various severities in a representative sample of adult offenders and patterns of custody associated with TBI. Methods: A self-report survey of adult, male offenders within a prison. Of 453 offenders, 196 (43%) responded. Results: Over 60% reported ‘Head Injuries’. Reports consistent with TBI of various severities were given by 65%. Of the overall sample, 16% had experienced moderate-to-severe TBI and 48% mild TBI. Adults with TBI were younger at entry into custodial systems and reported higher rates of repeat offending. They also reported greater time, in the past 5 years, spent in prison. Conclusions: These findings indicate that there is a need to account for TBI in the assessment and management of offenders.

Assessing emotion recognition in 9–15-years olds: Preliminary analysis of abilities in reading emotion from faces, voices and eyes

Primary objective: Little is known about how emotion recognition abilities develop during childhood and adolescence, although adolescence is a time marked by significant changes in socio-emotional behaviour. The first aim of this study was to explore the range of emotion recognition skills that 9–15-year olds would normally display and whether emotion-reading skills are reliably measurable. Secondly, one wanted to determine whether adolescence is a period during which skills in recognizing emotions improve. Methods and procedures: Novel and adapted measures of emotion processing were used in tasks that required 67 9–15-year olds to read emotion from voices, eyes and faces. Main outcomes and results: Findings indicate that emotion recognition abilities are reliably measurable skills. A stage of improvement in facial expression recognition and reading emotion from eyes was found to occur at ∼11 years of age. Conclusions: The findings show that these skills can be measured and that it is possible to devise assessment tests which are sensitive to developmental improvements in emotion recognition skills in early adolescence, when screening for the effects of child brain injury.

Self-reported traumatic brain injury in male young offenders: A risk factor for re-offending, poor mental health and violence?

Adolescence is a risk period for offending and for traumatic brain injury (TBI) and TBI is a risk factor for poor mental health and for offending. TBI has been largely neglected from guidance on managing the mental health needs of young offenders. We sought to determine the rate of self-reported TBI, of various severities, in a male, adolescent youth offending population. We also aimed to explore whether TBI was associated with number of convictions, violent offending, mental health problems and drug misuse. Young male offenders aged 11 to 19 years were recruited from a Young Offender Institute, a Youth Offending Team and a special needs school. A total of 197 participants were approached and 186 (94.4%) completed the study. They completed self-reports on TBI, crime history, mental health and drug use. TBI with loss of consciousness (LOC) was reported by 46% of the sample. LOC consistent with mild TBI was reported by 29.6%, and 16.6% reported LOC consistent with moderate to severe TBI. Possible TBI was reported by a further 19.1%. Repeat injury was common – with 32% reporting more than one LOC. Frequency of self-reported TBI was associated with more convictions. Three or more self-reported TBIs were associated with greater violence in offences. Those with self-reported TBI were also at risk of greater mental health problems and of misuse of cannabis. TBI may be associated with offending behaviour and worse mental health outcomes. Addressing TBI within adolescent offenders with neurorehabilitative input may be important for improving well-being and reducing re-offending.

Reading emotions after child brain injury: a comparison between children with brain injury and non-injured controls.

Primary objective: Child brain injury can have a lasting, detrimental effect upon socio-emotional behaviour, but little is known about underlying impairments that cause behavioural disturbance. This study explored the possibility that a proportion of difficulties result from compromise to systems in the brain which function in reading emotion in others from eyes, face expression or vocal tone. Methods and procedures: Measures of ability in reading emotion from faces, voices and eyes were used in conjunction with a battery of tests of cognitive function, in gathering data from 18 children aged between 9–17 with acquired brain injuries (ABI). Performance levels were compared against the normative data from 67 matched ‘healthy’ children. Questionnaires were used as a measure of socio-emotional behaviour. Main outcomes and results: The ABI children in the sample were worse than their same age peers at reading emotions. Regression analyses revealed that emotion recognition skills and cognitive abilities were generally unrelated. Some relationships between emotion reading difficulties and behaviour disturbance were found, however there were limitations associated with this particular finding. Conclusions: Emotion-recognition skills, which are not routinely assessed following child brain injury, can be adversely affected as a consequence of brain injury in childhood.

The Development of Emotion and Empathy Skills after Childhood Brain Injury.

Lasting socio‐emotional behaviour difficulties are common among children who have suffered brain injuries. A proportion of difficulties may be attributed to impaired cognitive and/or executive skills after injury. A recent and rapidly accruing body of literature indicates that deficits in recognizing and responding to the emotions of others are also common. Little is known about the development of these skills after brain injury. In this paper we summarize emotion‐processing systems, and review the development of these systems across the span of childhood and adolescence. We describe critical phases in the development of emotion recognition skills and the potential for delayed effects after brain injury in earlier childhood. We argue that it is important to identify the specific nature of deficits in reading and responding to emotions after brain injury, so that assessments and early intervention strategies can be devised.

Ambivalence, equivocation and the politics of experimental knowledge: A transdisciplinary neuroscience encounter

This article is about a transdisciplinary project between the social, human and life sciences, and the felt experiences of the researchers involved. ‘Transdisciplinary’ and ‘interdisciplinary’ research-modes have been the subject of much attention lately – especially as they cross boundaries between the social/humanistic and natural sciences. However, there has been less attention, from within science and technology studies, to what it is actually like to participate in such a research-space. This article contributes to that literature through an empirical reflection on the progress of one collaborative and transdisciplinary project: a novel experiment in neuroscientific lie detection, entangling science and technology studies, literary studies, sociology, anthropology, clinical psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Its central argument is twofold: (1) that, in addition to ideal-type tropes of transdisciplinary conciliation or integration, such projects may also be organized around some more subterranean logics of ambivalence, reserve and critique; (2) that an account of the mundane ressentiment of collaboration allows for a more careful attention to the awkward forms of ‘experimental politics’ that may flow through, and indeed propel, collaborative work more broadly. Building on these claims, the article concludes with a suggestion that such subterranean logics may be indissociable from some forms of collaboration, and it proposes an ethic of ‘equivocal speech’ as a way to live with and through these kinds of transdisciplinary experiences.

'I remember therefore I am, and I am therefore I remember': exploring the contributions of episodic and semantic self-knowledge to strength of identity.

The present research explores the relationship between the two components of autobiographical memory--episodic and semantic self-knowledge--and identity strength in older adults living in the community and residential care. Participants (N= 32) completed the autobiographical memory interview and measures of personal identity strength and multiple group memberships. Contrary to previous research, autobiographical memory for all time periods (childhood, early adulthood, and recent life) in the semantic domain was associated with greater strength in personal identity. Further, we obtained support for the hypothesis that the relationship between episodic self-knowledge and identity strength would be mediated by knowledge of personal semantic facts. However, there was also support for a reverse mediation model indicating that a strong sense of identity is associated with semantic self-knowledge and through this may enhance self-relevant recollection. The discussion elaborates on these findings and we propose a self-knowledge and identity model (SKIM) whereby semantic self-knowledge mediates a bidirectional relationship between episodic self-knowledge and identity.

Reading emotions after childhood brain injury: Case series evidence of dissociation between cognitive abilities and emotional expression processing skills

Primary objective: A previous study has shown that children with brain injuries are worse than their same age peers at reading emotions. It has not clearly been established that cognitive impairments and emotion processing impairments are dissociable in children and the question of whether emotion-reading skills can be selectively impaired in children after brain injury is explored here. Research design: This study addresses this issue by testing a case series of seven children with brain injuries, who were identified as experiencing emotional or behavioural difficulties, according to a social-behavioural measure. Methods and procedures: A battery of tests of cognitive function and measures that assess ability in reading emotions from faces, voices and eyes was administered to each child. Main outcomes and results: Some cases demonstrate broadly based deficits that affect both cognitive and emotion processing domains, whilst other cases demonstrate highly selective deficits in reading emotions. Conclusions: Based on the profile of results across the cases, this study reports that modality-specific, selective impairments in reading emotional expression can be found in children after brain injury. In addition, the data provide evidence of dissociation between cognitive abilities and emotional expression processing.

Resilience and the mediating effects of executive dysfunction after childhood brain injury: a comparison between children aged 9-15 years with brain injury and non-injured controls.

Primary objective: Acquired brain injury (ABI) during childhood can be associated with enduring difficulties related to impairments to executive functioning (EF). EF impairments may detrimentally affect outcome by restricting an individuals ability to access ‘resiliency’ resources after ABI. Research design: The purpose of this study was to explore whether there is deterioration in childrens resilience compared with peers after ABI and whether EF is influential in mediating relationships between resilience and behaviour. Methods and procedures: Measures of resilience, depression and anxiety were administered with 21 children with ABI and 70 matched healthy children aged 9–15 years. Parents completed measures of behaviour and EF. Main outcomes and results: Children with ABI were identified as less resilient and more depressed and anxious than controls. Resiliency measures were correlated with depression and anxiety in both groups. Relationships between resiliency and socio-emotional behaviour were mediated by EF. Conclusions: Assessment of resilience after ABI may be useful in supporting or defining the delivery of more individualized rehabilitation programmes according to the resources and vulnerabilities a young person has. However, an accurate understanding of the role of EF in the relationship between resilience and behavioural outcome after ABI is essential.