Faculty Collaboration Database

Cognition and post-concussive symptom status after pediatric mild traumatic brain injury. Child Neuropsychol 2024 Feb;30(2):203-220

Date

02/25/2023

Pubmed ID

36825526

Pubmed Central ID

PMC10447629

DOI

10.1080/09297049.2023.2181946

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85149270656 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   3 Citations

Abstract

Cognitive impairment and post-concussive symptoms (PCS) represent hallmark sequelae of pediatric mild traumatic brain injury (pmTBI). Few studies have directly compared cognition as a function of PCS status longitudinally. Cognitive outcomes were therefore compared for asymptomatic pmTBI, symptomatic pmTBI, and healthy controls (HC) during sub-acute (SA; 1-11 days) and early chronic (EC; approximately 4 months) post-injury phases. We predicted worse cognitive performance for both pmTBI groups relative to HC at the SA visit. At the EC visit, we predicted continued impairment from the symptomatic group, but no difference between asymptomatic pmTBI and HCs. A battery of clinical (semi-structured interviews and self-report questionnaires) and neuropsychological measures were administered to 203 pmTBI and 139 HC participants, with greater than 80% retention at the EC visit. A standardized change method classified pmTBI into binary categories of asymptomatic or symptomatic based on PCS scores. Symptomatic pmTBI performed significantly worse than HCs on processing speed, attention, and verbal memory at SA visit, whereas lower performance was only present for verbal memory for asymptomatic pmTBI. Lower performance in verbal memory persisted for both pmTBI groups at the EC visit. Surprisingly, a minority (16%) of pmTBI switched from asymptomatic to symptomatic status at the EC visit. Current findings suggest that PCS and cognition are more closely coupled during the first week of injury but become decoupled several months post-injury. Evidence of lower performance in verbal memory for both asymptomatic and symptomatic pmTBI suggests that cognitive recovery may be a process separate from the resolution of subjective symptomology.

Author List

Robertson-Benta CR, Pabbathi Reddy S, Stephenson DD, Sicard V, Hergert DC, Dodd AB, Campbell RA, Phillips JP, Meier TB, Quinn DK, Mayer AR

Author

Timothy B. Meier PhD Associate Professor in the Neurosurgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Brain Concussion
Child
Cognition
Cognitive Dysfunction
Humans
Memory
Neuropsychological Tests
Post-Concussion Syndrome