Decreased leftward 'aiming' motor-intentional spatial cuing in traumatic brain injury

To characterize the mediation of attention and action in space following traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Two exploratory analyses were performed to determine the influence of spatial 'Aiming' motor versus spatial 'Where' bias on line bisection in TBI participants. The first experiment compared performance according to severity and location of injury in TBI. The second experiment examined bisection performance in a larger TBI sample against a matched control group. In both experiments, participants bisected lines in near and far space using an apparatus that allowed for the fractionation of spatial Aiming versus Where error components.

In the first experiment, participants with severe injuries tended to incur rightward error when starting from the right in far space, compared with participants with mild injuries. In the second experiment, when performance was examined at the individual level, more participants with TBI tended to incur rightward motor error compared to controls.

TBI may cause frontal-subcortical cognitive dysfunction and asymmetric motor perseveration, affecting spatial Aiming bias on line bisection. Potential effects on real-world function need further investigation. (PsycINFO Database Record