Neuroscience & Public Policy Program (Dr Wszalek), Neuroscience Training Program (Drs Wszalek and Turkstra), Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (Drs Wszalek and Turkstra), and Department of Surgery (Dr Turkstra), University of Wisconsin-Madison.
J Head Trauma Rehabil. 2019 May/Jun;34(3):E55-E63. doi: 10.1097/HTR.0000000000000434.
To characterize comprehension of written legal language in adults with and without traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Nineteen adults with moderate-to-severe TBI (11 females) and 21 adults without TBI (13 females), aged 24 to 64 years.
Participants completed a multiple-choice assessment of legal-language comprehension, with written stimuli either presented in their original legal form or manipulated to simplify syntax or use more frequently occurring words.
Across stimulus types, TBI group participants were significantly less accurate and slower than comparison peers, with no effect of linguistic manipulation. Working memory and reading fluency test scores correlated with task accuracy and speed in both groups.
Adults with TBI underperformed their uninjured peers in both accuracy and speed on a task of legal-language comprehension, and these differences were attributable in part to differences in working memory and reading fluency. Results highlight the potential costs of TBI-related communication problems in criminal proceedings and the need to formally evaluate language comprehension in individuals with TBI who are in the criminal justice system.
描述有和无创伤性脑损伤（TBI）的成年人对书面法律语言的理解能力。
19 名中度至重度 TBI 成年人（11 名女性）和 21 名无 TBI 成年人（13 名女性），年龄在 24 至 64 岁之间。
参与者完成了一项法律语言理解的多项选择评估，书面刺激物以其原始法律形式呈现，或者进行语法简化或使用更常见单词的操作。
在所有刺激类型中，TBI 组参与者的准确性和速度都明显低于对照组，语法操作没有影响。工作记忆和阅读流畅性测试分数与两组的任务准确性和速度相关。
在法律语言理解任务中，TBI 组成年人的表现明显不如未受伤的同龄人，无论是在准确性还是速度方面，这些差异部分归因于工作记忆和阅读流畅性的差异。结果突出了 TBI 相关沟通问题在刑事诉讼中的潜在代价，以及需要在刑事司法系统中对 TBI 个体进行语言理解的正式评估。
