Cognitive Psychopathology and Neuropsychology Unit, University of Geneva, Switzerland.
J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2013 Sep;19(8):890-8. doi: 10.1017/S1355617713000672. Epub 2013 Jul 2.
Impulsive behaviors and poor inhibition performances are frequently described in patients with traumatic brain injury(TBI). However, few studies have examined impulsivity and associated inhibition impairments in these patients.Twenty-eight patients with moderate to severe TBI and 27 matched controls performed a stop-signal task designed to assess prepotent response inhibition (the ability to inhibit a dominant or automatic motor response) in a neutral or emotional context and a recent negative task to assess resistance to proactive interference (the ability to resist the intrusion into memory of information that was previously relevant but has since become irrelevant). Informants of each patient completed a short questionnaire designed to assess impulsivity. Patients showed a significant increase in current urgency,lack of premeditation, and lack of perseverance when retrospectively compared with the preinjury condition. Group comparisons revealed poorer prepotent response inhibition and resistance to proactive interference performances inpatients with TBI. Finally, correlation analyses revealed a significant positive correlation between urgency (the tendency to act rashly when distressed) and prepotent response inhibition in patients with TBI. This study sheds new light on the construct of impulsivity after a TBI, its related cognitive mechanisms, and its potential role in problematic behaviors described after a TBI.
创伤性脑损伤（TBI）患者常表现出冲动行为和较差的抑制表现。然而，很少有研究探讨这些患者的冲动性和相关的抑制损伤。28 名中重度 TBI 患者和 27 名匹配的对照者进行了停止信号任务，旨在评估在中性或情绪背景下的优势反应抑制（抑制主导或自动运动反应的能力）和最近的负性任务，以评估对前摄性干扰的抵抗（抵抗先前相关但后来变得不相关的信息侵入记忆的能力）。每位患者的知情人都完成了一份简短的问卷，旨在评估冲动性。与受伤前相比，患者在回顾性比较时表现出当前的紧迫性增加、缺乏预谋和缺乏坚持。组间比较显示 TBI 患者的优势反应抑制和对前摄性干扰的抵抗能力较差。最后，相关性分析显示，TBI 患者的紧迫性（在感到困扰时仓促行事的倾向）与优势反应抑制呈显著正相关。这项研究为 TBI 后的冲动性、相关认知机制及其在 TBI 后描述的问题行为中的潜在作用提供了新的视角。
