Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Affects Patients’ Cognition and Brain Matter

Randy Rozek • August 15, 2014

Neurology recently published a study that found mild traumatic brain injuries ( TBI) could impact the brain matter and cognition of patients’. The study focused on the less traumatic end of TBI because patients at this end of the spectrum are the most common. About 85 percent of patients have less severe forms of brain injury.

What Happens in a Healthy Brain?
With a brain working efficiently, the brain’s white section, an area that has an interconnection of wiring for different parts of the brain, is orderly and structured. When damage to the cellular structure occurs, the brightness of the DTI image reveals changes.

An Experiment Done to Determine Cognition
In working with 44 people who had less severe TBI, nine individuals who had moderate TBI and 33 individuals who had a healthy brain were part of the control group. Researchers did DTI scans for a week and administered a Glasgow Coma Scale test to determine a patient’s cognition.

What a GSC Test Reveals
A GSC test looks at three key areas for patient: Eye movement, general movement and verbal activity. Those who have a GSC score between 12 and 15 have a mild brain injury. A person without an injury scores 15, and scores below nine indicate severe brain injury.

The DTI scans revealed damage to white matter in the brain. The white matter could be considered wiring for the essential parts of the brain, and they include memory and language. Scans revealed that the greater the brain change, the worse individuals performed for verbal fluency tests. This study is a positive first step to understanding the best treatments for mild TBI.