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Vision Training Methods for Sports Concussion Mitigation and Management
Published on: May 5, 2015
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Concussion Alters the Functional Brain Processes of Visual Attention and Working Memory
Priyanka P Shah-Basak1,2, Charline Urbain1,3, Simeon Wong1
11 Diagnostic Imaging, The Hospital for Sick Children , Toronto, Ontario, Canada .
Journal of Neurotrauma
|October 13, 2017
Summary
Recent concussion impacts brain function, affecting visual working memory (VWM) and attention. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) revealed altered brain activation patterns in concussed individuals, even with normal performance.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Brain Injury Research
Background:
- Mild traumatic brain injury (concussion) affects millions annually, leading to cognitive, emotional, and physical issues.
- Previous research using fMRI highlighted attention and working memory deficits post-concussion, but temporal dynamics remain unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the spatiotemporal brain activity differences during visual working memory (VWM) processing in individuals with and without recent concussion.
- To characterize functional deficits at specific VWM stages using high-temporal-resolution magnetoencephalography (MEG).
Main Methods:
- Employed a 1-back visual working memory task with everyday scenes.
- Utilized magnetoencephalography (MEG) for millisecond temporal resolution brain activity analysis.
- Performed whole-brain source-level analyses during encoding and recognition phases.
Main Results:
- Concussed individuals showed abnormal hypo- and hyperactivation in frontoparietal, occipitotemporal, temporal, and subcortical areas.
- Altered activation patterns varied by VWM stage, impacting attentional control, scene processing, and memory retrieval.
- Parietal hypoactivation during encoding correlated with symptom severity, suggesting impaired top-down attention.
Conclusions:
- Despite similar behavioral performance, concussion leads to prolonged alterations in early attentional and VWM processes.
- Inefficient but compensatory neural activity was observed in brain regions involved in visual processing and memory.
- MEG reveals subtle, time-sensitive functional brain changes after mild traumatic brain injury.
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