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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Investigations on Alterations of Hippocampal Circuit Function Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
Published on: November 19, 2012
Long-term consequences of severe closed head injury on episodic memory
1Center for Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield 62794-9643, USA. rzec@siumed.edu
Abstract:
This is the first systematic investigation of the very long-term effects of severe closed head injury (CHI) on objective measures of memory, and the first to employ both a normal control group and an 'other injury' control group consisting of spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. The CHI group displayed significantly poorer performance on every memory measure, and the effect sizes were large. This impairment in episodic memory is neither due to pre-injury nor post-injury differences between CHI and normal control subjects because the same differences were found when the CHI group was compared to a group of SCI patients. The findings demonstrate severe impairment in learning and retention many years after sustaining a severe CHI, which is likely in part due to the bilateral hippocampal damage shown in neuropathological studies. This life-long memory impairment needs to be addressed by community service programs.
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