Residual Attention Deficits Following Childhood Head Injury: Implications for Ongoing Development

Abstract

Intact attentional abilities are important for ongoing development through childhood and adolescence. If impairment of these skills occurs as a result of paediatric head injury, then generalised deficits in cognitive abilities may emerge over time. The present study examined residual attentional and information processing abilities in a group of adolescents with a history of moderate to severe head injury, and compared their performances to those of non-injured peers. Results showed that head-injured adolescents exhibited deficits on a wide range of summary variables extracted from attention tasks. With respect to specific attentional components, no evidence was found for deficits in sustained attention for head-injured adolescents, with tasks tapping focused attention providing inconsistent results. In contrast, difficulties were identified on measures incorporating a speeded component, and on tasks requiring complex processing or higher-order attentional skills. These findings indicate a more generalised pattern of attentional and information processing deficits than has been documented following adult head injury. Further, these problems persist long after injury and are associated with globally depressed intellectual abilities.