Fielding graduate K. Drorit Gaines presents research poster at Fielding's Summer National Session 2012

Executive Functioning Neuropsychological Testing of Veterans Diagnosed with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

K. Drorit Gaines, Ph.D., Alumna, School of Psychology (2012)

In mild TBI functions served by the prefrontal cortex are often disrupted as a result of the injury. Given the importance of the executive functions in daily functioning and head injury rehabilitation, and their localization in the prefrontal region, it is important to detect the extent of executive dysfunction resulted from mild TBI.

This research was designed to determine whether recently deployed OEG/OIF veterans diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) show neuropsychological deficits in any of a number of areas (e.g., executive functions, memory) using neuropsychological testing. Independent groups, MTBI and control, are compared on a variety of tasks to get a picture of the effects of the MTBI. 64 veterans diagnosed with MTBI and 64 healthy veterans were used, and factors such as the presence of depressive symptoms, level of effort, compromised self-awareness, and pharmacological treatment are discussed with respect to neuropsychological findings.