Computerized Assessment of Neurocognitive function for Traumatic Brain Injury Patients

Choi, In Suk; Kim, Jae Jin; Chung, In Won

Abstract

Irrespective of focal lesion in brain imaging study, the deficits in cognitive function have been reported in mild traumatic brain injury patients. Therefore, they have been asked sensitive and objective assessment tools measuring cognitive deficits. In this study, traumatic brain injury patients were classified into lesion group and non-lesion group by presence of focal lesion in brain imaging study. At the same time, Results of Bender-Gestalt test, Standard Progressive Matrices, Cognitrone, and Signal Detection were analyzed among the groups. We assessed usefulness of Standard Progressive Matrices as assessment tool of intelligence in traumatic brain injury patients by correlation coefficients between KWIS and Standard Progressive Matrices intelligence quotients. 1) Most lesion group showed severe deficits in cognitive function, and most non-lesion group showed severe somatic symptoms. 2) The lesion group showed higher Bender-Gestalt test total error score than non-lesion group. 3) There was no difference in HWIS intelligence quotients between lesion and non-lesion group. 4) The lesion group showed lower performance than normal control and non-lesion group as increasing complexity of Standard Progressive Matrices subset. 5) The lesion group showed poor performance than normal control group in Cognitrone. 6) There were higher correlation coefficients than normal control group between Standard Progressive Matrices intelligence quotients and KWIS intelligence quotients in traumatic brain injury patients. According to the above results, lesion group showed deficits in space-construction ability, fine-motor coordination ability, form-memory ability, and delayed response-time. Although there are no statistical significance, comparing with normal control group, non-lesion group showed different response-trend in Cognitrone. Considering somatic symptoms in most non-lesion group and contribution of psychological factors in maintenance of symptoms in mild traumatic brain injury patients, the differences in Cognitrone must be interpreted carefully. These result suggest than Standard Progressive Matrices can be a useful tool for assessment of intelligence in traumatic brain injury patients who showed deficits in cognitive function.