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Persistent working memory deficits can be mainly explained by structural connectivity damage after diffuse traumatic brain injury

Traumatic brain injury is a major cause of long-term disability in the developed world. The IDIBAPS Neuropsychology Team, led by Dr. Carme Junqué from the Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology Department at the University of Barcelona School of Medicine, has a long tradition of basic and translational research around Working Memory. They published recently an article in Neurolgy analyzing the usefulness of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to evaluate working memory sequelae in severe and diffuse traumatic brain injury patients in chronic stage. The article shows, with Dr. Eva M. Palacios as its first author, that these technologies are complementary tools.

According to the study, the multimodal magnetic resonance imaging approach allows identifying structural and functional alterations in cerebral connectivity. By combining the 2 MRI techniques in the same subjects, this study shows how injury to the white matter tracts relates to cortical network activity during a working memory task. The research involved 19 chronic-stage patients with severe traumatic brain injury and evidence of traumatic axonal injury and 19 matched healthy controls. Poor performance is correlated with reduced activity in those cortical areas that form the memory network and also with less deactivation of the default mode network (DMN). The DMN is a wide neuronal network active during rest or internally focused activity and deactivated when attending to externally derived tasks.

In conclusion, persistent working memory deficits can be mainly explained by structural connectivity damage after diffuse traumatic brain injury. According to a Neurology Editorial published with the article, future researches should include a wider traumatic brain injury population and acute postinjury phase patients, instead of focusing on severely injured TBI patients.