Unilateral parietal brain injury increases risk-taking on a rat gambling task

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects millions of individuals every year. Many of these injuries lead to lasting effects, particularly impairments in domains broadly classified as executive functions, such as impulse control and decision-making. While these impairments have been historically associated with frontal brain damage, other injuries such as concussion or parietal injury also contribute to similar dysfunction. However, it is unknown whether animal models of TBI would replicate these broad effects that are observed in human patients. In the current study, we delivered a unilateral parietal controlled cortical impact injury and assessed the performance of rats on a motoric task (rotarod) and a test of decision-making and impulsivity (rodent gambling task). TBI rats demonstrated significant motor impairments on the rotarod task; however, this did not extend to difficulties inhibiting motor actions (impulsivity). In addition, TBI caused chronic alterations to risk-based decision-making, extending out to 12 weeks post-injury. Specifically, rats with TBI preferred the riskiest, and most suboptimal option over all others. The current data suggest that models of unilateral TBI are sufficient for replicating some aspects of executive dysfunction (risky decision-making), while others are limited to frontal damage (impulsivity). These models may be used to develop therapeutics targeted at the chronic post-injury period when these symptoms often manifest in patients, a critically understudied area in preclinical TBI research.