Abstract for presentation at 6th World Congress on Brain Injury

Mild Traumatic Brain Injury affects both the Spatial and Temporal Components of Attention

  • Dr Paul van Donkelaar, Dept. of Human Physiology, University of Oregon, United States
  • Jeanne Langan, Dept. of Human Physiology, University of Oregon, United States
  • Charlene Halterman, Dept. of Human Physiology, University of Oregon, United States
  • Dr Louis Osternig, Dept. of Human Physiology, University of Oregon, United States
  • Dr Li-Shan Chou, University of Oregon, United States

    • Objectives: Individuals suffering from mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) frequently display attentional deficits. Attention itself can be broken down into several different spatial and temporal components. Unfortunately, the influence of mTBI on these different attentional components has not previously been systematically investigated. The objective of the current study, therefore, was to characterize how mTBI affects both the spatial and temporal aspects of attention.
    Methods: A total of 26 individuals with mTBI and 26 age-, gender-, stature-, and activity level-matched controls participated. The mTBI subjects completed the testing within 2 days of sustaining their injury. Subjects completed the attentional network test (ANT) to characterize the alerting, orienting, and conflict components of spatial attention or the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task to assess the temporal aspects of attention.
    Results: Individuals with mTBI displayed slower reaction times overall during the ANT. This was due to increases in the magnitude of both the orienting and conflict components of the task. By contrast, the alerting component remained unaffected. In addition, comparison of reaction times during accurate versus inaccurate responses demonstrated that individuals with mTBI took markedly longer to initiate the former but not the latter compared to control subjects. Finally, mTBI subjects demonstrated a reduced ability to redistribute attention across time as assessed with the RSVP task.
    Conclusions: The current study demonstrates that both the spatial and temporal components of attention are affected by mTBI. Each of these attentional processes is associated with a partially overlapping network of brain structures. This suggests that certain areas of the brain associated with certain components of attention are more susceptible to the effects of mTBI than other brain areas.

    Conference Organiser - ICMS Pty Ltd