First Advisor

Laurie A. King

Date of Award

12-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Psychology and University Honors

Department

Psychology

Language

English

Subjects

Gait in humans, Cognition -- Testing, Brain damage -- Patients, Brain -- Concussion -- Complications

DOI

10.15760/honors.1183

Abstract

Cognitive deficits are common following mTBI. DT gait assessments and seated computerized exams are often used for evaluating those deficits. Little is known about DT gait and neurocognitive performance in a chronic population. We compared people with chronic mTBI and subacute mTBI to healthy controls (HC) on DT gait and neurocognitive performance and explored the relationship of DT gait performance with a traditional neurocognitive (TNC) exam.

Subjects completed a computerized TNC - the ANAM - and a motor-cognitive DT test which assessed both DT motor performance as well as the cognitive task accuracy. The DT test consisted of subjects walking while performing an auditory Stroop task. During these trials, subjects wore inertial sensors to collect gait metrics. Mann Whitney U tests and pairwise comparisons were used to evaluate group differences on the ANAM cognitive composite score & subcategory scores, as well as the DT cognitive accuracy, and DT gait speed.

The ANAM composite score indicated that the HC populations outperformed the subacute and chronic mTBI populations. In both ST and DT cognitive task accuracy, the subacute mTBI group performance was better than the chronic population, and the HC population outperformed the chronic group during the ST activity. Regardless of task, the chronic mTBI population suffered in gait function.

In chronic mTBI, cognitive and gait deficits may still be present months post injury. These deficits can be detected using TNC and DT gait assessments. The ANAM is sufficient at assessing cognitive deficits in individuals with mTBI, and gait metrics can indicate chronic cognitive impairment.

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Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/36984

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