Effects of severity of traumatic brain injury and brain reserve on cognitive-control related brain activation

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has revealed more extensive cognitive-control related brain activation following traumatic brain injury (TBI), but little is known about how activation varies with TBI severity. Thirty patients with moderate to severe TBI and 10 with orthopedic injury (OI) underwent fMRI at 3 months post-injury using a stimulus response compatibility task. Regression analyses indicated that lower total Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and GCS verbal component scores were associated with higher levels of brain activation. Brain-injured patients were also divided into three groups based upon their total GCS score (3-4, 5-8, or 9-15), and patients with a total GCS score of 8 or less produced increased, diffuse activation that included structures thought to mediate visual attention and cognitive control. The cingulate gyrus and thalamus were among the areas showing greatest increases, and this is consistent with vulnerability of these midline structures in severe, diffuse TBI. Better task performance was associated with higher activation, and there were differences in the over-activation pattern that varied with TBI severity, including greater reliance upon left-lateralized brain structures in patients with the most severe injuries. These findings suggest that over-activation is at least partially effective for improving performance and may be compensatory.