TY - JOUR PY - 2015// TI - Evidence of cognitive decline in older adults after remote traumatic brain injury: an exploratory study JO - Aging, neuropsychology and cognition A1 - Ozen, Lana J. A1 - Fernandes, Myra A. A1 - Clark, Amanda J. A1 - Roy, Eric A. SP - 517 EP - 533 VL - 22 IS - 5 N2 - 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

LA - en SN - 1382-5585 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13825585.2014.993584 ID - ref1 ER -