Performance on the Defense Automated Neurobehavioral Assessment across controlled environmental conditions

ABSTRACT

Neurocognitive assessment tools (NCAT) are commonly used to screen for changes in cognitive functioning following a mild traumatic brain injury and to assist with a return to duty decision. As such, it is critical to determine if performance on the Defense Automated Neurobehavioral Assessment (DANA) is adversely affected by operationally-relevant field environments. Differences in DANA performance between a thermoneutral environment and three simulated operationally-relevant field environments across the thermal stress continuum were calculated for 16 healthy U.S. Navy service members. Practice effects associated with brief test-retest intervals were calculated within each environmental condition. There were no significant differences between the simulated environmental conditions suggesting that performance on the DANA Brief is not impacted by thermal stress. Additionally, there were no significant differences in performance within each simulated environmental condition associated with repeated administrations.

KEY WORDS:

• DANA
• military
• NCAT
• neurocognitive

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the assistance of numerous individuals whose efforts were critical in the performance of this study. We thank the Navy Experimental Diving Unit, specifically, ND1 Gooch and Amelia Lovelace, whose tireless data collection efforts were instrumental in this work.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense, nor the U.S. Government. LT Haran and MAJ Dretsch are military service members. This work was prepared as part of their official duties. Title 17 U.S.C. § 105 provides that “Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government.” Title 17 U.S.C. § 101 defines a U.S. Government work as a work prepared by a military service member or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties.