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A functional MRI study of multimodal selective attention following mild traumatic brain injury

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Abstract

Previous work suggests that the ability to selectively attend to and resolve conflicting information may be the most enduring cognitive deficit following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). The current study used fMRI to evaluate potential differences in hemodynamic activation in 22 mTBI patients and 22 carefully matched healthy controls (HC) during a multimodal selective attention task (numeric Stroop). Behavioral data indicated faster reaction times for congruent versus incongruent trials and for stimuli presented at 0.66 compared to 0.33 Hz across both groups, with minimal differences in behavioral performance across the groups. Similarly, there were no group-wise differences in functional activation within lateral and medial prefrontal cortex during the execution of cognitive control (incongruent versus congruent trials). In contrast, within-group comparisons indicated robust patterns of attention-related modulations (ARM) within the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and bilateral visual streams for HC but not mTBI patients. In addition, mTBI patients failed to exhibit task-induced deactivation within the default-mode network (DMN) under conditions of higher attentional load. In summary, in spite of near normal behavioral performance, current results suggest within-group abnormalities during both the top-down allocation of visual attention and in regulating the DMN during the semi-acute stage of mTBI.

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Diana South, George Malloy and Cathy Smith for assistance with data collection, to Reyaad Hayek, M.D. for review of anatomical images, and to Gayle Pohl and her students for generous contributions to help fund this study.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [R24-HD050836, R21-NS064464-01A1 and 3 R21 NS064464-01 S1 to A.M.].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Mind Research Network/Lovelace Biomedical and Environmental Research Institute, Albuquerque, NM, 87106, USA

    Andrew R. Mayer, Zhen Yang, Ronald A. Yeo, Amanda Pena, Josef M. Ling, Maggie V. Mannell & Kasra Mojtahed

  2. Neurology Department, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA

    Andrew R. Mayer

  3. Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA

    Andrew R. Mayer & Ronald A. Yeo

  4. Neurosurgery Department, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA

    Martina Stippler

  5. The Mind Research Network/Lovelace Biomedical and Environmental Research, Pete & Nancy Domenici Hall, 1101 Yale Blvd. NE, MSC 116040, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    Andrew R. Mayer

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Mayer, A.R., Yang, Z., Yeo, R.A. et al. A functional MRI study of multimodal selective attention following mild traumatic brain injury. Brain Imaging and Behavior 6, 343–354 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-012-9178-z

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