Electrophysiological correlates of active and passive attentional states after severe traumatic brain injury.

We aimed to investigate attentional resources distribution in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients. Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 35 severe TBI patients in post-acute care, and 35 age- and gender-matched controls using an auditory oddball paradigm under passive (ignore stimuli) and active (count deviants) conditions. Six components (P1, N1, P2, N2, P3, N3) in four waveforms were studied, i.e., the waveforms elicited by standard and by deviant tones in the passive and active task, respectively. In addition to alterations of latency and/or amplitude of single components, particularly of the late components N2 and P3, we observed in patients a different response pattern to task condition. We found evidence of deficits in the early stages of information processing and allocation of attentional resources. The analysis of the response to standards was crucial for detecting new aspects of attentional impairments.

Identification of relevant ICF categories by patients with neurological conditions in early post-acute rehabilitation facilities.

PURPOSE: To describe functioning and health of patients with neurological conditions in early post-acute rehabilitation facilities and to identify the most common problems using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). METHODS: Cross-sectional survey in a convenience sample of patients with neurological conditions requiring rehabilitation in early post-acute facilities. The second-level categories of the ICF were used to collect information on patients' problems. For the ICF components Body Functions, Body Structures and Activities and Participation absolute and relative frequencies of impairments/limitations in the study population were reported. For the component Environmental Factors absolute and relative frequencies of perceived barriers or facilitators were reported. RESULTS: The mean age in the sample was 56.6 years with a median age of 60 years. Forty percent of the patients were female. In 292 neurological patients 125 categories (51%) had a prevalence of 30% and above: 39 categories (49%) of Body Functions, 11 categories (28%) of Body Structures, 64 categories (88%) of Activities and Participation and 10 (20%) categories of Environmental Factors. CONCLUSION: This study is a first step towards the development of ICF Core Sets for of patients with neurological conditions in early post-acute rehabilitation facilities.

Multisensory integration after traumatic brain injury: a reaction time study between pairings of vision, touch and audition.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) frequently results in deficits in attention and speed of information processing. In order to disentangle the influence of sensory-specific factors and the role of cross-modal integration from the supra-modal aspects of cognitive slowing, the present reaction time (RT) study was designed. Simple and choice RT to pairings of visual, auditory and tactile stimuli were measured in 35 TBI patients and 35 matched controls. Results proved a strong influence of sensory-specific and cross-modal factors in the RTs. The tactile modality was more difficult to integrate with the visual and the auditory modality, rather than the visual and the auditory modalities between them. TBI patients showed prolonged simple and choice RTs throughout all tasks, but their difficulty with integrating the tactile modality was disproportionately higher in comparison to controls.