Magnetic Resonance Imaging Findings Are Associated with Long-Term Global Neurological Function or Death after Traumatic Brain Injury in Critically Ill Children.

The identification of children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) who are at risk of death or poor global neurological functional outcome remains a challenge. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can detect several brain pathologies that are a result of TBI; however, the types and locations of pathology that are the most predictive remain to be determined. Forty-two critically ill children with TBI were recruited prospectively from pediatric intensive care units at five Canadian children's hospitals.

Delineating the Nature and Correlates of Social Dysfunction after Childhood Traumatic Brain Injury Using Common Data Elements: Evidence from an International Multi-Cohort Study.

Although childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been linked to heightened risk of impaired social skills and behavior, current evidence is weakened by small studies of variable methodological quality. To address these weaknesses, this international multi-cohort study involved synthesis of data from two large observational cohort studies of complicated mild-severe child TBI in Australia and North America. Both studies adopted a unified approach to data collection and coding procedures, providing the opportunity to merge datasets from multiple, well-characterized cohorts for which gold standard measures of social outcomes were collected during the chronic recovery phase.

The mentalizing network and theory of mind mediate adjustment after childhood traumatic brain injury.

Childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects over 600 000 children per year in the United States. Following TBI, children are vulnerable to deficits in psychosocial adjustment and neurocognition, including social cognition, which persist long-term. They are also susceptible to direct and secondary damage to related brain networks.

Theory of Mind and Parental Nurturance as Predictors of Peer Relationships After Childhood Traumatic Brain Injury: A Test of Moderated Mediation.

Objective: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) sustained in childhood is associated with poor social outcomes. This study investigated the role of theory of mind (ToM) as a mediator of the relation between TBI and peer rejection/victimization and reciprocated friendships, as well as the moderating effect of parental nurturance on those relationships.

Method: Participants were children of 8-13 years old (M = 10.

Role of Neurocognitive Factors in Academic Fluency for Children and Adults With Spina Bifida Myelomeningocele.

Objectives: Fluency is a major problem for individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, including fluency deficits for academic skills. The aim of this study was to determine neurocognitive predictors of academic fluency within and across domains of reading, writing, and math, in children and adults, with and without spina bifida. In addition to group differences, we expected some neurocognitive predictors (reaction time, inattention) to have similar effects for each academic fluency outcome, and others (dexterity, vocabulary, nonverbal reasoning) to have differential effects across outcomes.

Performance Monitoring in Children Following Traumatic Brain Injury Compared to Typically Developing Children.

Children with traumatic brain injury are reported to have deficits in performance monitoring, but the mechanisms underlying these deficits are not well understood. Four performance monitoring hypotheses were explored by comparing how 28 children with traumatic brain injury and 28 typically developing controls (matched by age and sex) performed on the stop-signal task. Control children slowed significantly more following incorrect than correct stop-signal trials, fitting the error monitoring hypothesis.

Brain biomarkers and pre-injury cognition are associated with long-term cognitive outcome in children with traumatic brain injury.

Background: Children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) are frequently at risk of long-term impairments of attention and executive functioning but these problems are difficult to predict. Although deficits have been reported to vary with injury severity, age at injury and sex, prognostication of outcome remains imperfect at a patient-specific level. The objective of this proof of principle study was to evaluate a variety of patient variables, along with six brain-specific and inflammatory serum protein biomarkers, as predictors of long-term cognitive outcome following paediatric TBI.

Rejection Sensitivity as a Moderator of Psychosocial Outcomes Following Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury.

Objectives: The current study examines whether psychosocial outcomes following pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) vary as a function of children's rejection sensitivity (RS), defined as their disposition to be hypersensitive to cues of rejection from peers.

Methods: Children ages 8-13 with a history of severe TBI (STBI, n=16), complicated mild/moderate TBI (n=35), or orthopedic injury (OI, n=49) completed measures assessing self-esteem and RS on average 3.28 years post-injury (SD=1.

Profiles of Executive Function Across Children with Distinct Brain Disorders: Traumatic Brain Injury, Stroke, and Brain Tumor.

Objectives: This study examined whether children with distinct brain disorders show different profiles of strengths and weaknesses in executive functions, and differ from children without brain disorder.

Methods: Participants were children with traumatic brain injury (N=82; 8-13 years of age), arterial ischemic stroke (N=36; 6-16 years of age), and brain tumor (N=74; 9-18 years of age), each with a corresponding matched comparison group consisting of children with orthopedic injury (N=61), asthma (N=15), and classmates without medical illness (N=68), respectively. Shifting, inhibition, and working memory were assessed, respectively, using three Test of Everyday Attention: Children's Version (TEA-Ch) subtests: Creature Counting, Walk-Don't-Walk, and Code Transmission.

Are Shunt Revisions Associated with IQ in Congenital Hydrocephalus? A Meta -Analysis.

Although it is generally acknowledged that shunt revisions are associated with reductions in cognitive functions in individuals with congenital hydrocephalus, the literature yields mixed results and is inconclusive. The current study used meta-analytic methods to empirically synthesize studies addressing the association of shunt revisions and IQ in individuals with congenital hydrocephalus. Six studies and three in-house datasets yielded 11 independent samples for meta-analysis.

Understanding ironic criticism and empathic praise: The role of emotive communication.

Ironic criticism and empathic praise are forms of social communication that influence the affective states of others in a negative or positive way. In a sample of 76 typically developing children and adolescents (mean age = 11 years; 4 months; SD: 2 years; 8 months), we studied how understanding of emotional expression (facial expression of emotion) and emotive communication (affective theory of mind) was related to the ability to understand negatively valenced ironic criticism and positively valenced empathic praise. We modelled comprehension of irony and empathy in school-aged children in relation to age and understanding of emotional expression and emotive communication.

The Relation of Focal Lesions to Cortical Thickness in Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury.

In a sample of children with traumatic brain injury, this magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based investigation examined whether presence of a focal lesion uniquely influenced cortical thickness in any brain region. Specifically, the study explored the relation of cortical thickness to injury severity as measured by Glasgow Coma Scale score and length of stay, along with presence of encephalomalacia, focal white matter lesions or presence of hemosiderin deposition as a marker of shear injury. For comparison, a group of children without head injury but with orthopedic injury of similar age and sex were also examined.

Adaptive functioning following pediatric traumatic brain injury: Relationship to executive function and processing speed.

Objective: Pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) may affect children's ability to perform everyday tasks (i.e., adaptive functioning).

Serum Biomarkers Help Predict Attention Problems in Critically Ill Children With Traumatic Brain Injury.

Objective: To evaluate the association between acute serum biomarkers, and the changes in attention at 1 year following traumatic brain injury.

Design And Setting: A prospective observational and laboratory study conducted in PICUs at five Canadian children's hospitals.

Study Population And Measurements: Fifty-eight patients aged 5 to 17 years with traumatic brain injury were enrolled in the study.

Plasticity of Interhemispheric Temporal Lobe White Matter Pathways Due to Early Disruption of Corpus Callosum Development in Spina Bifida.

Spina bifida myelomeningocele (SBM) is commonly associated with anomalous development of the corpus callosum (CC) because of congenital partial hypogenesis and hydrocephalus-related hypoplasia. It represents a model disorder to examine the effects of early disruption of CC neurodevelopment and the plasticity of interhemispheric white matter connections. Diffusion tensor imaging was acquired on 76 individuals with SBM and 27 typically developing individuals, aged 8-36 years.

Children with Traumatic Brain Injury: Associations Between Parenting and Social Adjustment.

Similarities and differences in parenting practices of children (age = 10; range 8-13 years) with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and socially-typical controls were examined. In addition, parenting practices were examined as moderators between injury group status (TBI or socially-typical) and social adjustment in the peer group. Mothers completed assessments of parenting practices; children's peers reported about children's social adjustment.

Mental Health Implications of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in Children and Youth.

Objective: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the most common cause of death and disability in children and adolescents. Psychopathology is an established risk factor for, and a frequent consequence of, TBI. This paper reviews the literature relating psychopathology and TBI.

Social problem-solving and social adjustment in paediatric traumatic brain injury.

Objective: Little is known regarding the predictors of social deficits that occur following childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI). The current study sought to investigate social problem solving (SPS) and its relationship to social adjustment after TBI.

Methods: Participants included 8-13 year old children, 25 with severe TBI, 57 with complicated mild-to-moderate TBI and 61 with orthopaedic injuries (OI).

Investigating a Proposed Model of Social Competence in Children With Traumatic Brain Injuries.

Objective: The goal of the current study was to test a proposed model of social competence for children who have suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI). We hypothesized that both peer and teacher reports of social behavior would mediate the relation between intraindividual characteristics (e.g.

Day of injury CT and late MRI findings: Cognitive outcome in a paediatric sample with complicated mild traumatic brain injury.

Objectives: Complicated mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) or cmTBI is based on the presence of visibly identifiable brain pathology on the day-of-injury computed tomography (CT) scan. In a paediatric sample the relation of DOI CT to late MRI findings and neuropsychological outcome was examined.

Methods: MRI (>12 months) was obtained in paediatric cmTBI patients and a sample of orthopaedically injured (OI) children.

Personality Change Due to Traumatic Brain Injury in Children and Adolescents: Neurocognitive Correlates.

Personality change due to traumatic brain injury (PC) in children is an important psychiatric complication of injury and is a form of severe affective dysregulation. This study aimed to examine neurocognitive correlates of PC. The sample included 177 children 5-14 years old with traumatic brain injury who were enrolled from consecutive admissions to five trauma centers.

Attention in spina bifida myelomeningocele: Relations with brain volume and integrity.

This study investigated the relations of tectal volume and superior parietal cortex, as well as alterations in tectocortical white matter connectivity, with the orienting and executive control attention networks in individuals with spina bifida myelomeningocele (SBM). Probabilistic diffusion tractography and quantification of tectal and superior parietal cortical volume were performed on 74 individuals aged 8-29 with SBM and a history of hydrocephalus. Behavioral assessments measured posterior (covert orienting) and anterior (conflict resolution, attentional control) attention network functions.

White and grey matter relations to simple, choice, and cognitive reaction time in spina bifida.

Elevated reaction time (RT) is common in brain disorders. We studied three forms of RT in a neurodevelopmental disorder, spina bifida myelomeningocele (SBM), characterized by regional alterations of both white and grey matter, and typically developing individuals aged 8 to 48 years, in order to establish the nature of the lifespan-relations of RT and brain variables. Cognitive accuracy and RT speed and variability were all impaired in SBM relative to the typically developing group, but the most important effects of SBM on RT are seen on tasks that require a cognitive decision rule.

Neurocognitive predictors of mathematical processing in school-aged children with spina bifida and their typically developing peers: Attention, working memory, and fine motor skills.

Objective: Math and attention are related in neurobiological and behavioral models of mathematical cognition. This study employed model-driven assessments of attention and math in children with spina bifida myelomeningocele (SBM), who have known math difficulties and specific attentional deficits, to more directly examine putative relations between attention and mathematical processing. The relation of other domain general abilities and math was also investigated.

Psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents 24 months after mild traumatic brain injury.

This study aimed to better understand the occurrence of novel psychiatric disorders (NPDs) in children with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in relation to preinjury variables, injury-related variables, and concurrent neurocognitive outcome. Eighty-seven children aged 5-14 years who had experienced mTBI were studied from consecutive hospital admissions with semistructured psychiatric interviews soon after injury (baseline). Fifty-four children were reassessed 24 months postinjury.