'Emotional Intelligence': Lessons from Lesions

Abstract

'Emotional intelligence' (EI) is one of the most highly used psychological terms in popular nomenclature, yet its construct, divergent, and predictive validities are contentiously debated. Despite this debate, the EI construct is composed of a set of emotional abilities - recognizing emotional states in the self and others, using emotions to guide thought and behavior, understanding how emotions shape behavior, and emotion regulation - that undoubtedly influence important social and personal outcomes. In this review, evidence from human lesion studies is reviewed in order to provide insight into the necessary brain regions for each of these core emotional abilities. Critically, we consider how this neuropsychological evidence might help to guide efforts to define and measure EI.

Keywords: affective theory of mind; emotion recognition; emotion regulation; emotional intelligence; empathy; human lesion method.

Figure 1. Network of Brain Regions Underlying Emotional Intelligence (EI)

(A) Areas of activation associated with various emotional intelligence scores from previous functional neuroimaging studies. (B) Core brain regions implicated in multiple emotional abilities by human lesion studies [–102]. Abbreviations: ACC, anterior cingulate cortex; vmPFC, ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

Figure 2. Behavioral Consequences of Lesions to Key EI Regions

(A) Anterior insula damage is linked to significant impairments in emotion recognition in the self (figure adapted from [25]) and (B) amygdala and vmPFC damages are linked to impaired recognition of others’ emotions, perhaps due to reduced orienting toward the eyes (figure reproduced, with permission, from [45,47]). (C) Emotional memory enhancement is diminished in patients with amygdala damage, resulting in an impaired ability to learn the personality traits of others in amygdala patients. By contrast, this ability is preserved in a patient with medial temporal lobe damage but with an intact amygdala (figure reproduced, with permission, from [56]). (D) vmPFC patients also have difficulty understanding the emotional mental states of others, as evidenced by reduced faux pas recognition accuracy (figure reproduced, with permission, from [66]). Lastly, (E) patients with medial orbitofrontal cortex (a region within the vmPFC) damage demonstrate impaired regulation of electrophysiological responses to aversive somatosensory stimulation relative to control participants (figure reproduced, with permission, from [73]). Abbreviations: NC, normal comparison group; PC, posterior cortex lesion group; L vmPFC, left ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesion group; R vmPFC, right ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesion group; Bi vmPFC, bilateral ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesion group.

Figure 3

Schematic Representations of Scalar and Multidimensional EI Space. (A) A two-dimensional continuum view of EI and (B) a multidimensional EI space composed of at least four component emotional abilities.