A Population-Based Study of Pre-Existing Health Conditions in Traumatic Brain Injury.

Health factors impacting both the occurrence of, and recovery from traumatic brain injury (TBI) vary in complexity, and present genuine challenges to researchers and healthcare professionals seeking to characterize injury consequences and determine prognosis. However, attempts to clarify causal links between injury characteristics and clinical outcomes (including mortality) often compel researchers to exclude pre-existing health conditions (PECs) in their samples, including psychiatric history, medication usage, and other comorbid conditions. In this pre-registered population-based study (total starting  = 939,123 patients), we examined trends in PEC incidence over 22 years in the state of Pennsylvania (1997-2019) in individuals sustaining TBI ( = 169,452) and individuals with orthopedic injury ( = 87,637).

Race and ethnicity considerations in traumatic brain injury research: Incidence, reporting, and outcome.

Primary Objective: This study has three goals: to determine whether there is a higher rate of traumatic brain injury (TBI) for people of color (POC), whether TBI studies report racial/ethnic demographics, and whether there is a discrepancy in discharge destinations between Whites and POC. We examined whether 1) a higher percentage of POC would sustain head injuries than expected, 2) the majority of TBI studies examined (>50%) would not include racial/ethnic demographics, and 3) Whites would be discharged to further treatment over POC.

Research Design: Retrospective study and literature review.

Enhanced default mode connectivity predicts metacognitive accuracy in traumatic brain injury.

Objective: To examine the role that intrinsic functional networks, specifically the default mode network, have on metacognitive accuracy for individuals with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Method: A sample of 44 individuals (TBI, n = 21; healthy controls [HCs], n = 23) were included in the study. All participants underwent an MRI scan and completed neuropsychological testing.

Prefrontal gray matter volume predicts metacognitive accuracy following traumatic brain injury.

Objective: To examine metacognitive ability (MC) following moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) using an empirical assessment approach and to determine the relationship between alterations in gray matter volume (GMV) and MC.

Method: A sample of 62 individuals (TBI n = 34; healthy control [HC] n = 28) were included in the study. Neuroimaging and neuropsychological data were collected for all participants during the same visit.

Diminished neural network dynamics in amnestic mild cognitive impairment.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is widely regarded as an intermediate stage between typical aging and dementia, with nearly 50% of patients with amnestic MCI (aMCI) converting to Alzheimer's dementia (AD) within 30 months of follow-up (Fischer et al., 2007). The growing literature using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging reveals both increased and decreased connectivity in individuals with MCI and connectivity loss between the anterior and posterior components of the default mode network (DMN) throughout the course of the disease progression (Hillary et al.

Corrigendum: Dedifferentiation Does Not Account for Hyperconnectivity after Traumatic Brain Injury.

[This corrects the article on p. 297 in vol. 8, PMID: 28769858.

Dedifferentiation Does Not Account for Hyperconnectivity after Traumatic Brain Injury.

Objective: Changes in functional network connectivity following traumatic brain injury (TBI) have received increasing attention in recent neuroimaging literature. This study sought to understand how disrupted systems adapt to injury during resting and goal-directed brain states. Hyperconnectivity has been a common finding, and dedifferentiation (or loss of segregation of networks) is one possible explanation for this finding.