title: Unravelling the influence of mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) on cognitive-linguistic processing: a comparative group analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cognitive-linguistic deficits often accompany traumatic brain injury (TBI) and can negatively impact communicative competency. The linguistic sequelae underpinning mild TBI (MTBI) remain largely unexplored in contemporary literature.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The present research methods aim to provide group evidence pertaining to the influence of MTBI on linguistic and higher-level language processing. Extrapolating on the findings of recent case reports, it is hypothesized that performance of the MTBI patients will be significantly reduced compared to normal controls performance on the employed high-level linguistic tasks.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixteen patients with MTBI and 16 age- and education-matched normal control participants were assessed using a comprehensive battery of cognitive-linguistic assessments.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results demonstrated statistically significant differences between MTBI and normal control group performance across a number of higher-level linguistic, general cognitive and general language tasks. MTBI group performance was significantly lower than the normal control group on tasks requiring complex lexical semantic operations and memory demands, including: Recall, organization, making inferences, naming and perception/discrimination.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These outcomes confer that post-MTBI, cognitive, high-level language and isolated general language performance (e.g. naming) is significantly reduced in MTBI patients, compared to normal controls. Furthermore, the detailed cognitive-linguistic profile offered provides a necessary direction for the identification of areas of linguistic decline in MTBI and targets for therapeutic intervention of impaired cognitive-linguistic processes to ultimately improve communicative outcomes in MTBI.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Neurogenic Communication Disorders Research, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland, Australia. c.barwood@uq.edu.au
authors.forename: Caroline H S
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Barwood
authors.forename: Bruce E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Murdoch
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis