Divided Attention 5 to 10 Years after Severe Closed Head Injury

The ability to divide attention of persons who had sustained a severe Closed Head Injury 5 to 10 years before (chronic CHI patients), was examined in a dual-task experiment administered to 15 CHI patients and 34 control subjects. Both the patient group and the control group consisted of active licenced drivers at the time of the investigation. One task was a compensatory tracking task requiring lane tracking, a basic skill or car driving. The other task was a self-paced visual choice reaction time task. Single-task difficulty was individually adjusted by adaptive task procedures (on both tasks CHI patients reached significantly lower performance levels in single task conditions). With individual differences in single-task performance thus controlled, the ability to divide attention was found to be approximately equal in the chronic CHI patients and the control group. A surprising finding in this light, however, was the significant positive correlation between severity of injury (PTA duration) and divided attention costs in the patient group.

[1]  M. Bond,et al.  Post-concussional symptoms, financial compensation and outcome of severe blunt head injury. , 1983, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[2]  B. Deelman,et al.  Differential effects of simple and choice reaction after closed head injury , 1976, Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery.

[3]  A. V. Zomeren,et al.  Residual complaints of patients two years after severe head injury. , 1985 .

[4]  Walter Schneider,et al.  Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending and a general theory. , 1977 .

[5]  ASSESSMENT OF FITNESS TO DRIVE OF BRAIN DAMAGED PERSONS --ROAD USER BEHAVIOR. THEORY AND RESEARCH. PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE 2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ROAD SAFETY HELD IN GRONINGEN, NETHERLANDS, AUGUST 1987 , 1988 .

[6]  W H Brouwer,et al.  Acquired brain damage and driving: a review. , 1987, Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation.

[7]  A W Gaillard,et al.  Task and driving performance of patients with a severe concussion of the brain. , 1986, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[8]  E. Miller,et al.  Simple and choice reaction time following severe head injury. , 1970, Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior.

[9]  W. Brouwer,et al.  Age differences in divided attention in a simulated driving task. , 1988, Journal of gerontology.

[10]  R. Reitan Validity of the Trail Making Test as an Indicator of Organic Brain Damage , 1958 .

[11]  W. Brouwer,et al.  Limitations of attention after closed head injury , 1985 .

[12]  S. Dencker,et al.  A psychometric study of identical twins discordant for closed head injury. , 1958, Acta psychiatrica et neurologica Scandinavica. Supplementum.

[13]  B. Deelman,et al.  Long-term recovery of visual reaction time after closed head injury. , 1978, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[14]  T. Salthouse,et al.  Divided attention abilities in young and old adults. , 1982, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[15]  J. A. Rothengatter,et al.  Fitness to drive a car after recovery from severe head injury. , 1988, Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation.