School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia.
ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
J Neuropsychol. 2019 Jun;13(2):253-271. doi: 10.1111/jnp.12141. Epub 2017 Dec 18.
Autobiographical memory (AM) is a complex function that involves re-experiencing of past personal events (episodic memory) scaffolded by personal facts (semantic memory). While AM is supported by a brain network and cognitive skills that are vulnerable to disruption by child traumatic brain injury (TBI), AM has not been examined in this patient population.
Cross-sectional study.
Participants included children with severe closed TBI (n = 14) and healthy control (NC) children (n = 20) of comparable age, sex, and socioeconomic status. Participants completed (1) the Child Autobiographical Interview (Willoughby et al., 2012, Front. Psychol., 3, 53), which required recall of autobiographical events and distinguished episodic (internal) from non-episodic (external) details, and self-rating of event phenomenological qualities, and (2) a battery of neuropsychological tests.
Children with TBI recalled significantly fewer internal details relative to NCs, but the between-group difference was eliminated when specific probes were provided. The groups did not differ in either recall of external details or in ratings of events' phenomenological qualities. The gap between the groups in recall of internal details increased with age, as the greater number of internal details was associated with older age in the NC group, but not in the TBI group. Poorer verbal memory and lower IQ were related to recall of fewer internal details in the TBI group.
This study unveils, to our knowledge for the first time, that severe child TBI is associated with a selective deficit in autobiographical memory that involves episodic, but spares semantic details, and identifies the risk factors for this impairment.
自传体记忆（AM）是一种复杂的功能，涉及对过去个人事件（情节记忆）的重新体验，这些记忆由个人事实（语义记忆）支撑。虽然 AM 由大脑网络和认知技能支持，但这些网络和技能容易受到儿童创伤性脑损伤（TBI）的破坏，但在该患者群体中尚未对 AM 进行检查。
横断面研究。
参与者包括患有严重闭合性 TBI（n=14）的儿童和具有可比年龄、性别和社会经济地位的健康对照组（NC）儿童（n=20）。参与者完成了（1）儿童自传体访谈（Willoughby 等人，2012 年，《心理学前沿》，3，53），该访谈要求回忆自传体事件，并区分情节（内部）和非情节（外部）细节，以及自我评估事件的现象学质量，以及（2）一系列神经心理学测试。
与 NC 相比，TBI 儿童回忆的内部细节明显较少，但当提供特定探针时，组间差异消除。两组在回忆外部细节或事件现象学质量评分方面均无差异。在回忆内部细节方面，两组之间的差距随着年龄的增长而增加，因为在 NC 组中，更多的内部细节与年龄较大相关，而在 TBI 组中则没有。在 TBI 组中，较差的语言记忆和较低的智商与回忆较少的内部细节有关。
这项研究首次揭示了严重的儿童 TBI 与自传体记忆的选择性缺陷有关，这种缺陷涉及情节，但不涉及语义细节，并确定了这种损伤的风险因素。
