HEAD injuries sustained by Vietnam veterans have revealed parts of the brain vital for two types of emotional intelligence.

Depending on the site of their injuries, the veterans studied were poor either at “experiential” emotional intelligence (the capacity to judge emotions in other people) or “strategic” emotional intelligence (the ability to plan socially appropriate responses to situations).

Led by Jordan Grafman at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, researchers gave standard tests for measuring emotional intelligence to 38 injured vets and 29 healthy controls. The 17 vets with injuries to their dorsolateral prefrontal cortex …