Neural Gain Modulation in Chronic Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
Abstract
Persistent symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) after the typical recovery period are a public health concern with high personal and economic costs. The etiology of symptomatic chronic mild TBI is the subject of much debate; some research suggests psychogenic factors such as pre-morbid psychiatric problems and financial incentive are the basis of self-report symptoms, while other research shows evidence of subtle neuropathological deficits in this population, including impaired resource allocation. To further complicate the understanding of symptomatic chronic mild TBI, many patients with subjective complaints perform within normal ranges on neuropsychological assessments and the constellation of symptoms in this population is non-specific. Research on the neurological basis of persistent symptoms in chronic mild TBI suggests that under low levels of cognitive load, patients may experience more resource allocation through enhanced neural gain, but behavioral manifestation of increased resource allocation are not apparent until higher levels of cognitive load. Thus, the ability to modulate neural gain in response to increases in cognitive load may be dysfunctional in chronic mild TBI and explain the discrepancy between subjective complaints of cognitive difficulty and behavioral outcomes. The current program of research investigated effects of cognitive load manipulations on measures of neural gain in chronic mild TBI and controls. It was proposed that patients with chronic mild TBI would have impaired modulation of neural gain and this neurological impairment would underlie subjective effort and cognitive performance. The first study confirmed group differences in modulating neural gain in response to varied attentional demands, although it was not affected by cognitive load.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 28, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1128387
Entities
People
- Jamie N Hershaw
Organizations
- Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences