Traumatic brain injury (TBI) during childhood can have long-term
effects on cognitive and psychosocial functioning, including poor
academic achievement. Pediatric TBI can cause significant deficits in
working memory, as demonstrated in a study published in Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Neurotrauma website at http://www.liebertpub.com/neu.
Working memory is the ability to collect, retain, and use information
needed to perform tasks and respond to immediate demands. Amery Treble
and coauthors from University of Houston, Texas and University of Texas
Health Science Center at Houston used brain imaging studies to measure
verbal and visuospatial working memory in a group of children who
sustained TBI and a control group who did not. The comparison showed
poorer visuospatial working memory in the pediatric TBI group, which was
associated with disruptions in brain connectivity between neural
networks that underlie working memory.
In the article “Working
Memory and Corpus Callosum Microstructural Integrity after Pediatric
Traumatic Brain Injury: A Diffusion Tensor Tractography Study,” the
authors propose that the identification of neuroanatomical biomarkers
indicative of these changes in brain microstructure might allow for
early identification of children at increased risk for impaired working
memory and for earlier intervention.
“While confirming the longstanding belief that the corpus callosum is
consistently involved with traumatic brain, this study’s exquisite
regionally specific analyses of callosal integrity, together with its
evaluation of working memory in a pediatric brain-injured population,
make this a particularly important contribution to the field of
pediatric TBI,” says John T. Povlishock, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Neurotrauma and Professor, VCU Neuroscience Center, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond.
Source: AlphaGalileo