A careful assessment by a neuropsychiatrist or neuropsychologist is often necessary to tease out just what the level of the person’s emotional experience is.įlat affect can be a factor of both the depression (also a common symptom after TBI) and the brain injury itself. In the brain, expression of affect occurs in the frontal lobe function, with specific localizations within the right hemisphere, cingulate cortex, limbic system, and in other areas that are involved in arousal.įor someone like your sister, flat affect may or may not occur in conjunction with deficits in her ability to actually feel different emotions and/or her ability to identify and label her emotions. They may also appear nonresponsive to the emotions of others. People with flat affect may not show the normal signs of emotion, may appear apathetic, may speak in a monotone, and may not change the expression of their emotions in response to varying situations as we expect them to. Affect refers to our emotional expressiveness - the degree to which our facial expression and demeanor reflect what we are feeling. “Flat affect” is a common symptom after a traumatic brain injury.
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