Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Mar;24(3):237-246.
doi: 10.1017/S1355617717000996. Epub 2017 Oct 16.

Neuropsychological Recovery Trajectories in Moderate to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: Influence of Patient Characteristics and Diffuse Axonal Injury

Amanda R Rabinowitz  1 , Tessa Hart  1 , John Whyte  1 , Junghoon Kim  1
Affiliations

Neuropsychological Recovery Trajectories in Moderate to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: Influence of Patient Characteristics and Diffuse Axonal Injury

Amanda R Rabinowitz et al. J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2018 Mar.

Erratum in

Abstract

Objectives: The goal of the present study was to elucidate the influence of demographic and neuropathological moderators on the longitudinal trajectory neuropsychological functions during the first year after moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). In addition to examining demographic moderators such as age and education, we included a measure of whole-brain diffuse axonal injury (DAI), and examined measures of processing speed (PS), executive function (EF), and verbal learning (VL) separately.

Methods: Forty-six adults with moderate to severe TBI were examined at 3, 6, and 12 months post-injury. Participants underwent neuropsychological evaluation and neuroimaging including diffusion tensor imaging. Using linear mixed effects modeling, we examined longitudinal trajectories and moderating factors of cognitive outcomes separately for three domains: PS, VL, and EF.

Results: VL and EF showed linear improvements, whereas PS exhibited a curvilinear trend characterized by initial improvements that plateaued or declined, depending on age. Age moderated the recovery trajectories of EF and PS. Education and DAI did not influence trajectory but were related to initial level of functioning for PS and EF in the case of DAI, and all three cognitive domains in the case of education.

Conclusions: We found disparate recovery trajectories across cognitive domains. Younger age was associated with more favorable recovery of EF and PS. These findings have both clinical and theoretical implications. Future research with a larger sample followed over a longer time period is needed to further elucidate the factors that may influence cognitive change over the acute to chronic period after TBI. (JINS, 2018, 24, 237-246).

Keywords: Brain injury; Cognition; Diffusion tensor imaging; Executive function; Neuropsychological tests; Verbal learning.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Cognitive change trajectories by age for each of the three cognitive domains. Cognitive domain scores are in T-score units. Time is depicted as time post-injury in onths. EF = executive function; PS = processing speed; VL = verbal learning.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Baayen RH, Davidson DJ, Bates DM. Mixed-effects modeling with crossed random effects for subjects and items. Journal of Memory and Language. 2008;59(4):390–412.
    1. Beglinger LJ, Gaydos B, Tangphao-Daniels O, Duff K, Kareken DA, Crawford J, et al. Siemers ER. Practice effects and the use of alternate forms in serial neuropsychological testing. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology. 2005;20(4):517–529. - PubMed
    1. Benton L, Hamsher K, Sivan A. Controlled oral word association test Multilingual aphasia examination. Iowa City, IA: AJA Associates; 1994.
    1. Bigler ED, Johnson SC, Anderson CV, Blatter DD, Gale SD, Russo AA, Hopkins RO. Traumatic brain injury and memory: The role of hippocampal atrophy. Neuropsychology. 1996;10(3):333.
    1. Christensen BK, Colella B, Inness E, Hebert D, Monette G, Bayley M, Green RE. Recovery of cognitive function after traumatic brain injury: A multilevel modeling analysis of Canadian outcomes. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 2008;89(12):S3–S15. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms