Dance-based intervention to remediate empathy deficits following acquired brain injury

Abstract

Acquired brain injuries (ABIs) can impact significantly on the experience and expression of emotions. For example, individuals with ABIs often display a lack of empathy. Lack of empathy affects the individual’s interpersonal relationships, and makes the rehabilitation process more challenging as s/he struggles to understand another’s perspective. This study describes the development and implementation of a therapeutic programme designed to improve empathy in high-functioning individuals who had sustained ABIs. The programme is based on the theoretical relationship between dance/movement and empathy. Thirteen individuals with ABI comprised the intervention group. They underwent a dance/movement therapy (DMT) programme for 1 hour a week over a period of 10 weeks. A comparison group of 8 individuals with ABI took part in a modern dance class of the same duration and intensity as the intervention. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Faux Pas Recognition Test provided measures of empathy, both preand post-intervention. Quantitative statistical analyses detected no significant effect of the DMT intervention on empathy measures. Qualitative observations, however, suggested there were some positive outcomes in the intervention group. Further research is required to investigate the efficacy of this DMT programme in neurorehabilitation settings, particularly in low-resourced countries such as South Africa.

Keywords: Dance, brain injury, empathy, mirror neurons, rehabilitation