Corinne Catale

Attentional and executive functioning following mild traumatic brain injury in children using the Test for Attentional Performance (TAP) battery

The interpretation of the data regarding cognitive outcome in children who have suffered from mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) remains currently controversial. The aim of the present study is to explore attentional and executive functioning in 6–12-year-old children who experienced a MTBI. A total of 15 children with MTBI and 15 matched noninjured children participated in the study. Attentional tasks using the Test for Attentional Performance battery were administered one year after the injury. In comparison to the noninjury children, MTBI children performed less accurately on selective attentional and updating tasks. These preliminary findings support the view that MTBI can have an impact on specific attentional functioning in children one year postinjury.

Age-related differences in perceptuomotor procedural learning in children

Procedural learning is generally considered to proceed in a series of phases, with cognitive resources playing an important role during the initial step. From a developmental perspective, little is known about the development of procedural learning or the role played by explicit cognitive processes during learning. The main objectives of this study were (a) to determine whether procedural learning performance improves with age by comparing groups of 7-year-old children, 10-year-old children, and adults and (b) to investigate the role played by executive functions during the acquisition in these three age groups. The 76 participants were assessed on a computerized adaptation of the mirror tracing paradigm. Results revealed that the youngest children had more difficulty in adapting to the task (they were slower and committed more errors at the beginning of the learning process) than 10-year-olds, but despite this age effect observed at the outset, all children improved performance across trials and transferred their skill to a different figure as well as adults. Correlational analyses showed that inhibition abilities play a key role in the performance of 10-year-olds and adults at the beginning of the learning but not in that of 7-year-olds. Overall, our results suggest that the age-related differences observed in our procedural learning task are at least partly due to the differential involvement of inhibition abilities, which may facilitate learning (so long as they are sufficiently developed) during the initial steps of the learning process; however, they would not be a necessary condition for skill learning to occur.

The Real Animal Size Test (RAST): A new measure of inhibitory control for young children

Inhibitory control disturbances are reported in numerous developmental and acquired neuropsychological disorders of young children. In this study, a new assessment tool, the Real Animal Size Test (RAST) was tested. It includes four conditions: The first two conditions assess speed of processing and require making quick decisions, by pressing a response key, on the real size of animals and the on-screen size of big or small rectangles; the third and fourth condition (combined into one) require the child to decide the real size of animals displayed in congruent or incongruent size on the screen. Participants in the study were 90 children aged 5–9 years old. The results confirmed that the RAST provides a good measure of inhibitory control in children. In a second experiment, 15 children 5–9 years old with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder symptoms (ADHD) participated; the RAST was also administered. The clinical pertinence of the RAST for ADHD symptoms is discussed.

Exploration of perceptual and motor inhibition in children with traumatic brain injury

Perceptual and motor inhibition were examined using conflict resolution tasks for 12 children with traumatic brain injury and 24 matched controls. Direct comparisons of inhibition performances between the two groups showed a specific and disproportionate impairment of motor inhibition (compared with perceptual inhibition) for the children with traumatic brain injury, which suggests that inhibition processes might be differentially impaired in children after traumatic brain injury.

Early bifrontal brain injury: disturbances in cognitive function development.

We describe six psychomotor, language, and neuropsychological sequential developmental evaluations in a boy who sustained a severe bifrontal traumatic brain injury (TBI) at 19 months of age. Visuospatial, drawing, and writing skills failed to develop normally. Gradually increasing difficulties were noted in language leading to reading and spontaneous speech difficulties. The last two evaluations showed executive deficits in inhibition, flexibility, and working memory. Those executive abnormalities seemed to be involved in the other impairments. In conclusion, early frontal brain injury disorganizes the development of cognitive functions, and interactions exist between executive function and other cognitive functions during development.