1. Executive function predictors of delayed memory deficits after mild traumatic brain injury
- Author
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James F. Cavanagh, James M. Broadway, Richard A. Campbell, Andrew R. Mayer, J. Kevin Wilson, Davin K. Quinn, Darbi Gill, Ronald A. Yeo, Violet Fratzke, and Rebecca E. Rieger
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Adult ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Adolescent ,Traumatic brain injury ,Cognitive Neuroscience ,Repression, Psychology ,Poison control ,Experimental and Cognitive Psychology ,Neuropsychological Tests ,Audiology ,Verbal learning ,Article ,050105 experimental psychology ,Cognitive strategy ,Executive Function ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,Cognition ,0302 clinical medicine ,Predictive Value of Tests ,Concussion ,Injury prevention ,medicine ,Cluster Analysis ,Humans ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Brain Concussion ,Memory Disorders ,05 social sciences ,Middle Aged ,Verbal Learning ,Executive functions ,medicine.disease ,Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology ,Mental Recall ,Educational Status ,Female ,Psychology ,Psychomotor Performance ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
Delayed memory deficits are common for patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), according to a recent systematic review of meta-analyses (Karr et al., 2014). However, there has been little work to identify different cognitive processes that may be underpinning these delayed memory deficits for mTBI. Frontal cortex is important for delayed memory, and is implicated in the pathophysiology of mTBI; moreover, frontal lobes are typically considered the locus of executive abilities. To further explore these relationships, we sought to partly explain delayed memory deficits after mTBI by examining behavioral indicators of executive function. Results showed that sub-acute as well as chronic mTBI patients performed worse than controls on the delayed memory trial of the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (Brandt & Benedict, 2001), recalling approximately 18% and 15% fewer words, respectively. Furthermore, worse delayed memory performance was associated with less use of the cognitive strategy of semantic clustering, and with lower scores for the executive function composite from a standardized neuropsychological battery (NIH EXAMINER; Kramer et al., 2014). In contrast, serial clustering, a memory organizational strategy thought to be less dependent on executive function, did not show strong relationships to clinical status or delayed memory performance. This exploratory work suggests novel hypotheses to be tested in future, confirmatory studies, including that general executive functions and/or semantic clustering will mediate delayed memory deficits following mTBI.
- Published
- 2019
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