TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY AND TEMPORAL HORN ENLARGEMENT - CORRELATES WITH TESTS OF INTELLIGENCE AND MEMORY

Temporal horn volume, an indirect measure of hippocampal atrophy, base d on postinjury magnetic resonance (MR) studies was calculated in a gr oup of 61 traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients and 90 control subject s that were age- and gender-matched. Additionally, ventricle:brain rat ios (VBRs), based on total ventricular volume corrected for head size, were calculated. Anatomic comparisons indicated that the ventricular system in TBI patients was significantly dilated. Enlargement of the t emporal horns showed an inverse relationship to some neuropsychologica l test findings; however, the hypothesis that verbal memory tasks woul d relate specifically to the left temporal horn, and visual memory tas ks to the right was not supported. Results are discussed in terms of t he current conceptual framework of mesial temporal lobe damage in TBI and disruption of memory performance.