Levy Arielle M, Saling Michael M, Anderson Jacqueline F I
Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia.
Psychology Department, The Alfred hospital, Commercial Rd, Melbourne, Victoria, 3004, Australia.
Arch Clin Neuropsychol. 2025 Jan 21;40(1):63-74. doi: 10.1093/arclin/acae060.
Subjective cognitive symptoms are commonly reported after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) but are often not associated with objective cognitive performance. This may be due to limitations in traditional cognitive performance measures, which may not be sensitive to subtle variations in cognition in post-acute mTBI. This study explored associations between objective and subjective cognition using computer-based tasks of increasing cognitive load, proposed to be more sensitive to subtle differences in performance.
Individuals with mTBI (n = 68) and trauma controls (n = 40) were prospectively recruited and assessed approximately 8 weeks post-injury. Participants completed measures of subjective symptom reporting, objective cognitive performance (including two computer-based tasks of increasing cognitive load), and psychological distress.
There were no significant associations between subjective and objective cognition reporting in the mTBI group, both in bivariate correlations (|r| = 0.01-0.20, p > .05) and when controlling for psychological distress (|r| = 0.00-0.17, p > .05). A similar pattern of results was observed in trauma controls, suggesting that the limited relationships between objective and subjective cognition in mTBI may not be specific to this population.
Despite employing measures of cognitive performance proposed to be more sensitive than traditional tasks, no significant relationships were observed between objective and subjective cognition in post-acute mTBI, and estimated effect sizes were small to negligible. This provides further evidence that at a group level 8 weeks after mTBI subjective cognitive symptoms primarily reflect factors aside from objective cognition.
轻度创伤性脑损伤（mTBI）后常出现主观认知症状，但往往与客观认知表现无关。这可能是由于传统认知表现测量方法存在局限性，这些方法可能对急性创伤后mTBI认知的细微变化不敏感。本研究使用认知负荷不断增加的计算机任务来探索客观认知与主观认知之间的关联，这些任务被认为对表现的细微差异更敏感。
前瞻性招募mTBI患者（n = 68）和创伤对照组（n = 40），并在受伤后约8周进行评估。参与者完成主观症状报告、客观认知表现（包括两项认知负荷不断增加的计算机任务）和心理困扰的测量。
在mTBI组中，主观认知报告与客观认知之间在双变量相关性方面（|r| = 0.01 - 0.20，p > 0.05）以及在控制心理困扰时（|r| = 0.00 - 0.17，p > 0.05）均无显著关联。在创伤对照组中观察到类似的结果模式，这表明mTBI中客观认知与主观认知之间有限的关系可能并非该人群所特有。
尽管采用了被认为比传统任务更敏感的认知表现测量方法，但在急性创伤后mTBI中，客观认知与主观认知之间未观察到显著关系，估计效应大小很小或可忽略不计。这进一步证明，在mTBI后8周的群体水平上，主观认知症状主要反映客观认知之外的因素。
