Emotional intelligence and prefrontal cortex: A comparative study based on wisconsin card sorting test (WCST)

Objective: emotional intelligence (ei) is a set of competencies that enable us to engage in sophisticated information processing of emotions and emotion-relevant stimuli and to use this information as a guide for thinking and behavior. prefrontal cortexes (pfc) of brain and related regions have an important role in emotion and emotional regulation. accordingly,we conducted a study to investigate the relation between ei and performance in wisconsin card sorting test (wcst) (a neuropsychological test,used to evaluate some of the frontal lobe functions). methods: in this quasi-experimental study,250 volunteers from bs and ba students of universities of tehran were recruited using available sampling method. bar-on ei,general health questionnaire (ghq-28) and raven's progressive matrices were completed by the participants. they were categorized into two groups; each group contained 40 students with high and low ei,whose performance in wcst were evaluated thereafter individually. data was analyzed by manova. results: our results showed that the high ei group had a better performance in wcst than the low ei group. conclusion: it can be concluded that people with better ei may have better pfc functions.