Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 30, 2025
Modified Mouse Model of Repetitive Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Incorporating Thinned-Skull Window and Fluid Percussion
Published on: April 19, 2024
Executive functioning, behavior, and white matter microstructure in the chronic phase after pediatric mild traumatic
Anja K Betz1, Suheyla Cetin-Karayumak2, Elena M Bonke1,3
1cBRAIN, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany.
Insights
Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in children can impact executive function and emotion regulation years later. These effects depend on the child's age at the time of injury.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric neurology
- Neuroscience
- Developmental psychology
Background:
- Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a common childhood injury.
- Long-term cognitive and behavioral outcomes after pediatric mTBI are not well understood.
- The influence of age at injury on long-term outcomes remains largely unknown.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate long-term cognitive and behavioral outcomes after pediatric mTBI.
- To examine the effect of age at injury on these outcomes.
- To assess structural brain alterations using MRI.
Main Methods:
- Matched cohort study comparing children with mTBI (n=406) to typically developing (TDC; n=812) and orthopedic injury (OI; n=812) controls.
- Assessed task-based and parent-rated executive functioning, emotion regulation, and impulsivity.
- Analyzed MRI-based white matter microstructure (FA, MD) and the effect of age at injury (0-3, 4-7, 8-10 years).
Main Results:
- Children with mTBI history showed higher parent-rated executive dysfunction, impulsivity, and poorer self-regulation than controls.
- These differences were linked to specific age-at-injury groups.
- No significant differences were observed in task-based executive functioning or white matter microstructure between groups.
Conclusions:
- Pediatric mTBI affects everyday executive function, impulsivity, and emotion regulation years post-injury.
- Outcomes are specific to the age of injury, highlighting vulnerable developmental periods.
- White matter microstructure did not show significant alterations in this cohort.
Background:
Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is common in children. Long-term cognitive and behavioral outcomes as well as underlying structural brain alterations following pediatric mTBI have yet to be determined. In addition, the effect of age-at-injury on long-term outcomes is largely unknown.
Methods:
Children with a history of mTBI (n = 406; Mage = 10 years, SDage = 0.63 years) who participated in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study were matched (1:2 ratio) with typically developing children (TDC; n = 812) and orthopedic injury (OI) controls (n = 812). Task-based executive functioning, parent-rated executive functioning and emotion-regulation, and self-reported impulsivity were assessed cross-sectionally. Regression models were used to examine the effect of mTBI on these domains. The effect of age-at-injury was assessed by comparing children with their first mTBI at either 0-3, 4-7, or 8-10 years to the respective matched TDC controls. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD), both MRI-based measures of white matter microstructure, were compared between children with mTBI and controls.
Results:
Children with a history of mTBI displayed higher parent-rated executive dysfunction, higher impulsivity, and poorer self-regulation compared to both control groups. At closer investigation, these differences to TDC were only present in one respective age-at-injury group. No alterations were found in task-based executive functioning or white matter microstructure.
Conclusions:
Findings suggest that everyday executive function, impulsivity, and emotion-regulation are affected years after pediatric mTBI. Outcomes were specific to the age at which the injury occurred, suggesting that functioning is differently affected by pediatric mTBI during vulnerable periods. Groups did not differ in white matter microstructure.
Related Concept Videos
01:30Cognitive Development During Adulthood
01:30Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Diagnostic Criteria and Symptoms
To diagnose ADHD, symptoms must manifest before age 12 and be evident across multiple settings....
01:18Cognitive Development During Adolescence
01:14Role of Cerebellum and Prefrontal Cortex in Memory
01:30Information Processing Approach