Citation

Ozen LJ, Fernandes MA, Clark AJ, Roy EA. Aging Neuropsychol. Cogn. 2015; 22(5): 517-533.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/13825585.2014.993584

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Separate bodies of literature indicate that a history of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and natural aging may result in overlapping cognitive profiles, yet little is known about their combined effect. We predicted that a remote TBI would compound normal age-related cognitive decline, particularly affecting executive function. Neuropsychological task performance was compared between a group of older adults who sustained a TBI in their distant past (N = 9) and a group of older adults with no history of head injury (N = 15). While all participants scored in the normal range on the Mini-Mental State Examination, the TBI group scored lower than the non-TBI group. Also, in line with predictions, the TBI group made more errors on measures of executive functioning compared to the non-TBI group (the Trail Making B test and the incongruent condition of the Stroop Test), but performed similarly on all tasks with little executive requirements.

FINDINGS from this exploratory study indicate that a past TBI may put older adults at a higher risk for exacerbated age-related cognitive decline compared to older adults with no history of TBI.

Language: en