Dm. Bernstein et Sw. De Ruiter, The influence of motivation on neurocognitive performance long after mild traumatic brain injury, BRAIN COGN, 44(1), 2000, pp. 50-54
Motivation and the presence of mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) were cros
sed to determine whether individuals with MTBI could overcome attention def
icits many years after injury. Contrary to prediction, university students
with self-reported MTBI (average time since injury = 6.4 years) performed n
o differently from controls on a short but demanding set of neurocognitive
tasks. As predicted, however, motivation differentially affected these grou
ps by elevating controls' performance while leaving the MTBI group's perfor
mance unaffected. This finding was mainly due to individuals with more than
one MTBI. These results suggest that university students who have sustaine
d more than one MTBI may demonstrate subtle, longterm neurocognitive impair
ment. Additionally, motivation may be an important variable to consider in
MTBI research, (C) 2000 Academic Press.