Executive Functioning, Behavior, and White Matter Microstructure in the Chronic Phase After Pediatric Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Results from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study

Overview

Journal Psychol Med

Publisher Cambridge University Press

Specialty Psychology

Date 2024 Mar 18

PMID 38497117

Authors

Anja K Betz

Suheyla Cetin-Karayumak

Elena M Bonke

Johanna Seitz-Holland

Fan Zhang

Steve Pieper

Lauren J ODonnell

Yorghos Tripodis

Yogesh Rathi

Martha E Shenton

Inga K Koerte

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is common in children. Long-term cognitive and behavioral outcomes as well as underlying structural brain alterations following pediatric mTBI have yet to be determined. In addition, the effect of age-at-injury on long-term outcomes is largely unknown.

Methods: Children with a history of mTBI ( = 406; = 10 years, = 0.63 years) who participated in the (ABCD) study were matched (1:2 ratio) with typically developing children (TDC; = 812) and orthopedic injury (OI) controls ( = 812). Task-based executive functioning, parent-rated executive functioning and emotion-regulation, and self-reported impulsivity were assessed cross-sectionally. Regression models were used to examine the effect of mTBI on these domains. The effect of age-at-injury was assessed by comparing children with their first mTBI at either 0-3, 4-7, or 8-10 years to the respective matched TDC controls. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD), both MRI-based measures of white matter microstructure, were compared between children with mTBI and controls.

Results: Children with a history of mTBI displayed higher parent-rated executive dysfunction, higher impulsivity, and poorer self-regulation compared to both control groups. At closer investigation, these differences to TDC were only present in one respective age-at-injury group. No alterations were found in task-based executive functioning or white matter microstructure.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that everyday executive function, impulsivity, and emotion-regulation are affected years after pediatric mTBI. Outcomes were specific to the age at which the injury occurred, suggesting that functioning is differently affected by pediatric mTBI during vulnerable periods. Groups did not differ in white matter microstructure.

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