Recovery of an injured cingulum concurrent with improvement of short-term memory in a patient with mild traumatic brain injury

ABSTRACT

Objectives: We reported on a patient with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) who showed recovery of an injured cingulum concurrent with improvement of short-term memory, which was demonstrated on follow-up diffusion tensor tractography (DTT).

Methods: A 55-year-old male patient suffered head trauma resulting from falling from approximately 2 m while working at a construction site. The patient showed mild memory impairment (especially short-term memory impairment) at 3 months after onset: Memory Assessment Scale (global memory: 95 (37%ile), short-term memory: 75 (5%ile), verbal memory: 80 (9%ile) and visual memory: 112 (79%ile)). By contrast, at 2 years after onset, his mild memory impairment had improved to a normal state: Memory Assessment Scale (global memory: 104 (61%ile), short-term memory: 95 (37%ile), verbal memory: 101 (53%ile) and visual memory: 106 (66%ile)).

Results: On 3-month DTT, discontinuation of the right anterior cingulum was observed over the genu of the corpus callosum, while on 2-year DTT, the discontinued right anterior cingulum was elongated to the right basal forebrain.

Conclusion: In conclusion, recovery of an injured cingulum concurrent with improvement of short-term memory was demonstrated in a patient with mild TBI.

KEYWORDS:

• Brain plasticity
• cingulum
• diffuse axonal injury
• diffusion tensor imaging
• memory

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Funding

This work was supported by the DGIST R&D Program of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (17-BD-0401).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the DGIST R&D Program of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (17-BD-0401).