INS NYC 2024 Program

Poster	Poster Session 03 Program Schedule 02/15/2024 09:30 am - 10:40 am Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60) Poster Session 03: Neurotrauma \| Neurovascular Final Abstract #52 Preliminary Investigation of a History of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Relation to Cognition Among Older Hispanics Stephanie Neaves, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, United States Jessica Helphrey, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, United States Hannah Cabrera, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, United States Munro Cullum, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, United States Laura Lacritz, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, United States John Hart, UT Dallas, Richardson, United States Christian LoBue, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, United States Category: Aging Keyword 1: traumatic brain injury Keyword 2: aging (normal) Keyword 3: neuropsychological assessment Objective: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) has been identified as a possible risk factor for future cognitive decline leading to dementia, which may indicate that mTBI could lower neural circuit functioning during aging, but the research has been mixed. Although prior TBI has been linked to expressing cognitive decline considerably earlier in Hispanics relative to non-Hispanics, the underlying mechanism is unclear, as this group has been underrepresented in TBI and aging research. As such, the objective of this pilot study was to examine if a history of mTBI was associated with lower functioning of neural circuits, measured with neuropsychological tasks, among older cognitively intact Hispanics. Participants and Methods: Twenty-Seven older adults (Mage = 65 years; Mean education = 16 years; 82% female; 96% Mexican-American; 4% other Latin-American descent; 81% English as primary language) were recruited through the Texas Alzheimer’s Research and Care Consortium to complete a comprehensive TBI history survey and neuropsychological battery. Cognitive tests included the Trail Making Test, Controlled Oral Word Association Test, CERAD Word List Test, Boston Naming Test, and Wechsler Logical Memory (WMS LM) and Visual Reproduction (WMS VR) tests. Participants were classified based on the presence (mTBI+; n=7) or absence (mTBI- = 20) of past mTBI. For the mTBI+ group, 3 had a single injury and 4 had multiple injuries. Independent samples t-tests were conducted to assess if there were significant differences between the groups in cognitive function. Results: mTBI+ and mTBI- groups were similar in age, sex, education, and pre-morbid intellectual functioning (p’s > .05). Although performance on measures of attention, executive function, and language were lower for the mTBI+ group compared to the mTBI- group, no significant differences were observed on any measure, including Trails A (Mdiff = 4.37; p= .39), Trails B (Mdiff = 7.73; p= .17), phonemic fluency (Mdiff = 1.19; p= .82), semantic fluency (Mdiff = 7.79; p= .07), and the Boston Naming Test (Mdiff = 1.31; p = .75). Both groups also did not significantly differ on measures of episodic memory, involving the CERAD total list learning (Mdiff = 2.65; p= .64), CERAD delayed recall (Mdiff = .81; p= .86), WMS LM immediate recall (Mdiff = 4.64; p= .27), WMS LM delayed recall (Mdiff = 1.25; p= .79), WMS VR immediate recall (Mdiff = .89; p= .86) and WMS VR delayed recall (Mdiff = 1.11; p= .82). Conclusions: A history of mTBI was not associated with significantly worse performance on tests of attention, executive function, language, or episodic memory in a small cognitively intact older Hispanic sample. However, the mTBI group did score approximately half a standard deviation lower on multiple tests. Thus, longitudinal research with a larger sample may elucidate if there are potential implications of prior mTBI in aging and if it is associated with subtle cognitive differences that could predispose some Hispanics to earlier cognitive decline.

Poster

02/15/2024
09:30 am - 10:40 am
Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60)

Poster Session 03: Neurotrauma | Neurovascular

Final Abstract #52

Preliminary Investigation of a History of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Relation to Cognition Among Older Hispanics

Stephanie Neaves, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, United States
Jessica Helphrey, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, United States
Hannah Cabrera, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, United States
Munro Cullum, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, United States
Laura Lacritz, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, United States
John Hart, UT Dallas, Richardson, United States
Christian LoBue, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, United States

Category: Aging

Keyword 1: traumatic brain injury
Keyword 2: aging (normal)
Keyword 3: neuropsychological assessment

Objective:

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) has been identified as a possible risk factor for future cognitive decline leading to dementia, which may indicate that mTBI could lower neural circuit functioning during aging, but the research has been mixed. Although prior TBI has been linked to expressing cognitive decline considerably earlier in Hispanics relative to non-Hispanics, the underlying mechanism is unclear, as this group has been underrepresented in TBI and aging research. As such, the objective of this pilot study was to examine if a history of mTBI was associated with lower functioning of neural circuits, measured with neuropsychological tasks, among older cognitively intact Hispanics.

Participants and Methods:

Twenty-Seven older adults (Mage = 65 years; Mean education = 16 years; 82% female; 96% Mexican-American; 4% other Latin-American descent; 81% English as primary language) were recruited through the Texas Alzheimer’s Research and Care Consortium to complete a comprehensive TBI history survey and neuropsychological battery. Cognitive tests included the Trail Making Test, Controlled Oral Word Association Test, CERAD Word List Test, Boston Naming Test, and Wechsler Logical Memory (WMS LM) and Visual Reproduction (WMS VR) tests. Participants were classified based on the presence (mTBI+; n=7) or absence (mTBI- = 20) of past mTBI. For the mTBI+ group, 3 had a single injury and 4 had multiple injuries. Independent samples t-tests were conducted to assess if there were significant differences between the groups in cognitive function.

Results:

mTBI+ and mTBI- groups were similar in age, sex, education, and pre-morbid intellectual functioning (p’s > .05). Although performance on measures of attention, executive function, and language were lower for the mTBI+ group compared to the mTBI- group, no significant differences were observed on any measure, including Trails A (Mdiff = 4.37; p= .39), Trails B (Mdiff = 7.73; p= .17), phonemic fluency (Mdiff = 1.19; p= .82), semantic fluency (Mdiff = 7.79; p= .07), and the Boston Naming Test (Mdiff = 1.31; p = .75). Both groups also did not significantly differ on measures of episodic memory, involving the CERAD total list learning (Mdiff = 2.65; p= .64), CERAD delayed recall (Mdiff = .81; p= .86), WMS LM immediate recall (Mdiff = 4.64; p= .27), WMS LM delayed recall (Mdiff = 1.25; p= .79), WMS VR immediate recall (Mdiff = .89; p= .86) and WMS VR delayed recall (Mdiff = 1.11; p= .82).

Conclusions:

A history of mTBI was not associated with significantly worse performance on tests of attention, executive function, language, or episodic memory in a small cognitively intact older Hispanic sample. However, the mTBI group did score approximately half a standard deviation lower on multiple tests. Thus, longitudinal research with a larger sample may elucidate if there are potential implications of prior mTBI in aging and if it is associated with subtle cognitive differences that could predispose some Hispanics to earlier cognitive decline.