[Traumatic brain injury and daily life: The role of executive function]

Executive functions are critical in our daily life. People with traumatic brain injury (TBI) often have difficulty functioning appropriately in everyday life. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between executive function and functional capacity after TBI. The sample consisted of 43 moderate or severe TBI patients (mean age: 32 years, SD= 13.9). All participants were tested with a battery of executive function measures (Trail Making Test-B, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Letter-Number Sequencing of the WAIS-III, Stroop Color-Word Interference Test, and Controlled Oral Word Association Test). Patients' everyday functioning was examined with the Patient Competency Rating Scale (PCRS). PCRS was correlated significantly, although moderately, with Trail Making Test-B, Letter-Number Sequencing, and Controlled Oral Word Association Test. These findings suggest that executive function measures used in clinical practice reveal some degree of ecological validity, providing relevant information for predicting daily-life functioning after moderate to severe TBI.