TY - JOUR
T1 - Mild traumatic brain injury and its sequelae
T2 - Characterisation of divided attention deficits
AU - Paré, Nadia
AU - Rabin, Laura A.
AU - Fogel, Joshua
AU - Pépin, Michel
N1 - Funding Information:
Correspondence should be sent to Nadia Paré, Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center, 975 Sereno Drive, Vallejo, CA, 94589 USA. E-mail: [email protected] This study was funded by grants from the Conseil Québécois sur la Recherche Sociale and was derived from the dissertation of Nadia Paré (Paré, 2003), completed at Université Laval.
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - Deficits in divided attention occur after a mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) but many extant tasks lack sensitivity for detecting subtle cognitive difficulties. We use the Test d'Attention Partagee Informatise (TAPI), a novel dual-task paradigm, to investigate the impact of MTBI on the ability to divide attention between two stimuli sources. Individuals with MTBI (n = 37) were evaluated within the first week following head trauma and at three months post-injury. A healthy control (HC) group (n = 79) was also assessed. The primary outcome was reaction time and there were three different conditions that included visual target detection and auditory digit span tasks. Analyses utilised repeated measures ANOVA and ANCOVA models that adjusted for relevant variables including post-concussive and affective symptoms. Results indicated that at both baseline and follow-up, the MTBI group had significantly slower reaction time than the HC group. Also, both the MTBI and HC groups had slower reaction times as participants progressed through each of the more challenging TAPI conditions. This study supports the usefulness of this novel instrument and allows clinicians and researchers to assess for subtle divided attention deficits that may persist in those with MTBI even three months post-injury.
AB - Deficits in divided attention occur after a mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) but many extant tasks lack sensitivity for detecting subtle cognitive difficulties. We use the Test d'Attention Partagee Informatise (TAPI), a novel dual-task paradigm, to investigate the impact of MTBI on the ability to divide attention between two stimuli sources. Individuals with MTBI (n = 37) were evaluated within the first week following head trauma and at three months post-injury. A healthy control (HC) group (n = 79) was also assessed. The primary outcome was reaction time and there were three different conditions that included visual target detection and auditory digit span tasks. Analyses utilised repeated measures ANOVA and ANCOVA models that adjusted for relevant variables including post-concussive and affective symptoms. Results indicated that at both baseline and follow-up, the MTBI group had significantly slower reaction time than the HC group. Also, both the MTBI and HC groups had slower reaction times as participants progressed through each of the more challenging TAPI conditions. This study supports the usefulness of this novel instrument and allows clinicians and researchers to assess for subtle divided attention deficits that may persist in those with MTBI even three months post-injury.
KW - Attention
KW - Brain injuries
KW - Neuropsychological tests
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U2 - 10.1080/09602010802106486
DO - 10.1080/09602010802106486
M3 - Article
C2 - 18609010
AN - SCOPUS:58149102240
SN - 0960-2011
VL - 19
SP - 110
EP - 137
JO - Neuropsychological Rehabilitation
JF - Neuropsychological Rehabilitation
IS - 1
ER -