Stroke Victim Doesn’t Feel Sadness

Finally: a silver lining to traumatic brain injuries. Malcolm Myatt hasn’t felt sad since the emotion-controlling frontal lobe of his brain was struck during a stroke in 2004. After his recovery, the 68-year-old Brit found changes to his short-term memory, but also discovered he was unable to exhibit sadness. “I am never depressed. Being sad wouldn’t help anything anyway. I would definitely rather be happy all the time than the other way round. It’s an advantage really,” Myatt says. Researchers at the Stroke Association confirm that psychological and emotional changes emerge after a brain injury, but haven’t before heard of a case where one emotion is completely absent.