Evidence for impaired emotional reactivity in aphasia during naturalistic movie-viewing

Evidence for impaired emotional reactivity in aphasia during naturalistic movie-viewing | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Evidence for impaired emotional reactivity in aphasia during naturalistic movie-viewing Manuel Marte, Bryce Gillis, Xuehu Wei, Colin P Galvin, Laura Rigolo, and 3 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8477032/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Language is thought to play a fundamental role in how humans experience emotion. Chronic aphasia, a persistent language impairment, provides a unique window for examining predictions about the role of language in shaping emotions. Here, we tested the hypothesis that aphasia is associated with altered patterns of emotional reactivity during naturalistic movie viewing. We analyzed real-time and holistic emotion ratings, and language comprehension, of movie clips, in persons with aphasia (PWA, n=57) and healthy controls (HC, n=43). PWA versus HC showed reduced typicality and temporal complexity of real-time emotion judgements (p<.006), reduced typicality of holistic emotion judgements (p<0.001), and reduced language task accuracy (p<.001). Principal component analysis yielded a primary component that distinguished the groups (p<.001), and in PWA correlated with aphasia (r=0.644) and depression (r=-0.305) scores. Machine learning achieved strong group classification (AUC=0.964, accuracy=86%) and moderate aphasia severity prediction (r=0.589), with both language and emotion contributing features. The findings converge in demonstrating that language and emotion impairments are coupled, during both lexical and discourse level processing. The work highlights that scientific accounts and clinical evaluations of language would benefit from incorporating real-time measures of emotion processing, particularly for improving our understanding of real-world functional communication and impairments. Biological sciences/Psychology/Human behaviour Biological sciences/Neuroscience/Cognitive neuroscience/Language Biological sciences/Neuroscience/Emotion Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8477032","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":575779159,"identity":"24488f2c-0ca5-4662-a377-e5e57b646bae","order_by":0,"name":"Manuel Marte","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1837-601X","institution":"Center for Brain Recovery","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Manuel","middleName":"","lastName":"Marte","suffix":""},{"id":575779160,"identity":"8fda4066-23f0-45f3-97a9-ac653eff7f8d","order_by":1,"name":"Bryce Gillis","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"McLean 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Chronic aphasia, a persistent language impairment, provides a unique window for examining predictions about the role of language in shaping emotions. Here, we tested the hypothesis that aphasia is associated with altered patterns of emotional reactivity during naturalistic movie viewing. We analyzed real-time and holistic emotion ratings, and language comprehension, of movie clips, in persons with aphasia (PWA, n=57) and healthy controls (HC, n=43). PWA versus HC showed reduced typicality and temporal complexity of real-time emotion judgements (p\u003c.006), reduced typicality of holistic emotion judgements (p\u003c0.001), and reduced language task accuracy (p\u003c.001). Principal component analysis yielded a primary component that distinguished the groups (p\u003c.001), and in PWA correlated with aphasia (r=0.644) and depression (r=-0.305) scores. Machine learning achieved strong group classification (AUC=0.964, accuracy=86%) and moderate aphasia severity prediction (r=0.589), with both language and emotion contributing features. The findings converge in demonstrating that language and emotion impairments are coupled, during both lexical and discourse level processing. 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