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Arithmetic difficulties in children with mild traumatic brain injury at the subacute stage of recovery
Leen Van Beek1, Pol Ghesquière1, Bert De Smedt1
1Parenting and Special Education, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Insights
Children with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) show arithmetic difficulties, particularly with complex problems. Event-related potentials reveal reduced late positivity component (LPC) in mTBI patients, indicating altered brain function.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Pediatric Neurology
Background:
- Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) can impact cognitive functions in children.
- Arithmetic difficulties are a reported consequence of pediatric mTBI, but underlying neural mechanisms are not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate electrophysiological brain activity during arithmetic tasks in children with subacute mTBI.
- To identify specific event-related potential (ERP) abnormalities associated with arithmetic impairments post-mTBI.
Main Methods:
- Compared ERPs during single-digit addition tasks (small vs. large sums) in 16 children with subacute mTBI and 16 healthy controls.
- Analyzed early ERP components (P1, N1, P2, N2) and the late positivity component (LPC).
Main Results:
- Children with mTBI exhibited lower accuracy on large-sum arithmetic problems compared to controls (81% vs. 91%).
- No significant group differences were found in early ERP components (P1, N1, P2, N2).
- Significantly smaller LPC amplitudes were observed in children with mTBI compared to controls (8.35μV vs. 12.95μV).
Conclusions:
- Arithmetic difficulties in children with subacute mTBI are more prominent for less automated, complex problems.
- Reduced LPC amplitude in ERPs reflects altered neural processing of arithmetic in pediatric mTBI.
- Early ERP components and N2 are not significantly affected, suggesting specific deficits in later cognitive processing stages.
Aim:
Arithmetic difficulties have been reported in children with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), but the electrophysiological abnormalities underlying these impairments remain unknown. We therefore used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate brain functioning during arithmetic in children in the subacute phase after mTBI.
Method:
The participants comprised 16 children with mTBI at the subacute phase of recovery (10 males, mean age 10y 8mo; six females, mean age 10y 8mo) and 16 well-matched comparison children (11 males, mean age 10y 11mo; five females, mean age 10y 6mo). All children were asked to solve single-digit addition problems of small (sum ≤10) and large problem size (sum >10) and ERPs were simultaneously recorded.
Results:
Children with mTBI performed significantly less accurately (mean 81%) than comparison children (mean 91%) on the large (p=0.026) but not on the small problems (p=0.171). We observed no group differences in the early ERP components P1, N1, P2, and N2 (all p values ≥0.241), yet significant group differences (p=0.019) emerged for the late positivity component (LPC), which showed smaller mean amplitudes (mean 8.35μV) in mTBI patients than comparison children (mean 12.95μV).
Interpretation:
Immediately after the injury, arithmetic difficulties in children with mTBI are particularly pronounced on more complex arithmetical problems that are less automated. This is reflected in the ERP pattern, with decreased LPC but normal N2 and early ERP components.
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