An Examination of Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries (mTBI) and Story Variability on Memory Recall

Description

The present study examined the effects that mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) has on an individual’s episodic memory by looking at participants’ abilities to recall stories both immediately after being verbally told and after a delay. Thirty-seven participants were sorted

The present study examined the effects that mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) has on an individual’s episodic memory by looking at participants’ abilities to recall stories both immediately after being verbally told and after a delay. Thirty-seven participants were sorted into a control group (N=27) and a mTBI group (N=10) and then given the Wechsler Memory Scale’s two subtests, Logical Memory I and Logical Memory II. Logical Memory I consists of two verbally given stories in which the participant immediately retells the story to the assessor with as much detail and original vocabulary as they can remember. Logical Memory II has the participants, without prior knowledge, retell the same two stories after a thirty-minute delay. Once recorded, researchers transcribed and scored the participants’ story recalls, gathering data on what errors, correct ideas, and vocabulary the participants made and remembered. The data was then analyzed through an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), looking at the interaction of Story (of the two stories that the participants were told), Group (whether mTBI or control) , and Delay (whether it was the immediate or delayed recall). Trends in the data show that participants with a history of mTBI do more poorly than the control group proving that memory is affected by acquired brain injury and that further studies to examine how and why this is the case are needed.

Date Created
2023-05
Agent

Cognitive-communication Abilities in Bilinguals with a History of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

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Description
Mild TBI (mTBI) has been associated with subtle executive function (EF) and

cognitive-communication deficits. In bilinguals, there are unique cognitive demands required to control and process two languages effectively. Surprisingly, little is known about the impact of mTBI on EF, communication,

Mild TBI (mTBI) has been associated with subtle executive function (EF) and

cognitive-communication deficits. In bilinguals, there are unique cognitive demands required to control and process two languages effectively. Surprisingly, little is known about the impact of mTBI on EF, communication, and language control in bilinguals. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the cognitive-communication abilities in bilinguals with a history of mTBI, identify any language control impairments, and explore the relationship between these language control impairments and domain-general cognitive control abilities. To this end, three-hundred and twenty-seven monolingual and bilingual college students with and without mTBI history participated in two experiments. In these experiments, EF, communication, and language control were examined using experimental and clinical tasks as well as self-rating scales. In Experiment 1, there was an interaction between mTBI history and language group (monolinguals vs. bilinguals) in how participants performed on a clinical measure of EF and a verbal fluency task. That is, only bilinguals with mTBI scored significantly lower on these tasks. In addition, there was a significant correlation between errors on a language switching task and performance on non-verbal EF tasks. In Experiment 2, a subgroup of bilinguals with persistent cognitive and behavioral symptoms reported greater everyday communication challenges in their first and second languages. Also, unbalanced bilinguals reported greater EF difficulties than monolinguals and balanced bilinguals regardless of mTBI history. In conclusion, bilinguals may face unique cognitive-communication challenges after mTBI. Factors related to the bilingual experience (e.g., language balance, daily language use) should be

considered in clinical evaluation and future research.
Date Created
2020
Agent

Executive function and language control in bilinguals with a history of mild traumatic brain injury

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Description
Adults with a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) often show deficits in executive functioning, which include the ability to inhibit, switch, and attend to task relevant information. These abilities are also essential for language processing in bilinguals, who constantly

Adults with a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) often show deficits in executive functioning, which include the ability to inhibit, switch, and attend to task relevant information. These abilities are also essential for language processing in bilinguals, who constantly inhibit and switch between languages. Currently, there is no data regarding the effect of TBI on executive function and language processing in bilinguals. This study used behavioral and eye-tracking measures to examine the effect of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) on executive function and language processing in Spanish-English bilinguals. In Experiment 1, thirty-nine healthy bilinguals completed a variety of executive function and language processing tasks. The primary executive function and language processing tasks were paired with a cognitive load task intended to simulate mTBI. In Experiment 2, twenty-two bilinguals with a history of mTBI and twenty healthy control bilinguals completed the same executive function measures and language processing tasks. The results revealed that bilinguals with a history of mTBI show deficits in specific executive functions and have higher rates of language processing deficits than healthy control bilinguals. Additionally, behavioral and eye-tracking data suggest that these language processing deficits are related to underlying executive function abilities. This study also identified a subset of bilinguals who may be at the greater risk of language processing deficits following mTBI. The findings of this study have a direct impact on the identification of executive function deficits and language processing deficits in bilinguals with a history mTBI.
Date Created
2015
Agent

Working Memory Capacity: Is There a Bilingual Advantage?

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Description

Previous studies suggest that bilinguals have certain executive function advantages over monolinguals. However, few studies have examined specific working memory (WM) differences between monolinguals and bilinguals using complex span tasks. In the current study, 52 bilingual and 53 monolingual speakers

Previous studies suggest that bilinguals have certain executive function advantages over monolinguals. However, few studies have examined specific working memory (WM) differences between monolinguals and bilinguals using complex span tasks. In the current study, 52 bilingual and 53 monolingual speakers were administered simple and complex WM span tasks, including a backward digit-span task, standard operation span tasks and a non-verbal symmetry span task. WM performance was a strong predictor of performance on other WM tasks, whereas bilingual status was not. Thus, the present study did not find evidence of a bilingual advantage in WM capacity.

Date Created
2015-01-02
Agent