School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia.
School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia.
Neuropsychologia. 2024 Nov 5;204:109005. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2024.109005. Epub 2024 Sep 21.
Despite increasing recognition of the significance of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), the long-term cognitive consequences of the injury remain unclear. More sensitive measures that can detect subtle cognitive changes and consideration of individual variability are needed to properly characterise cognitive outcomes following mTBI. Here, we used complex behavioural tasks, individual differences approaches, and electrophysiology to investigate the long-term cognitive effects of a history of mTBI. In Experiment 1, participants with self-reported mTBI history (n=82) showed poorer verbal working memory performance on the operation span task compared to control participants (n=88), but there were no group differences in visual working memory, multitasking, cognitive flexibility, attentional control, visuospatial ability, or information processing speed. Individual differences analyses revealed that time since injury and presence of memory loss predicted visual working memory capacity and visuospatial ability, respectively, in those with mTBI history. In Experiment 2, participants with mTBI history (n=20) again demonstrated poorer verbal working memory on the operation span task compared to control participants (n=38), but no group differences were revealed on a visuospatial complex span task or simpler visual working memory measures. We also explored the electrophysiological indices of visual working memory using EEG during a change detection task. No differences were observed in early sensory event-related potentials (P1, N1) or the later negative slow wave associated with visual working memory capacity. Together, these findings suggest that mTBI history may be associated with a lasting, isolated disruption in the subsystem underlying verbal working memory storage. The results emphasise the importance of sensitive cognitive measures and accounting for individual variability in injury characteristics when assessing mTBI outcomes.
尽管人们越来越认识到轻度创伤性脑损伤 (mTBI) 的重要性，但该损伤的长期认知后果仍不清楚。需要更敏感的措施来检测微妙的认知变化，并考虑个体差异，以正确描述 mTBI 后的认知结果。在这里，我们使用复杂的行为任务、个体差异方法和电生理学来研究 mTBI 史的长期认知影响。在实验 1 中，有自我报告 mTBI 史的参与者（n=82）在操作跨度任务上的言语工作记忆表现比对照组差（n=88），但在视觉工作记忆、多任务处理、认知灵活性、注意力控制、视空间能力或信息处理速度方面没有组间差异。个体差异分析表明，受伤时间和记忆丧失的存在分别预测了 mTBI 史患者的视觉工作记忆能力和视空间能力。在实验 2 中，有 mTBI 史的参与者（n=20）在操作跨度任务上再次表现出言语工作记忆较差，而对照组参与者（n=38）则没有差异，但在视觉空间复杂跨度任务或更简单的视觉工作记忆测量上没有差异。我们还使用 EEG 在变化检测任务中探索了视觉工作记忆的电生理指标。在早期感觉事件相关电位（P1、N1）或与视觉工作记忆容量相关的后期负慢波中没有观察到差异。总之，这些发现表明 mTBI 史可能与言语工作记忆存储的子系统中持久的孤立破坏有关。这些结果强调了在评估 mTBI 结果时使用敏感认知措施和考虑损伤特征个体差异的重要性。
