The effects of mild traumatic brain injury on confrontation naming in adults

Primary objective: To compare confrontation-naming in adults with MTBI to a group of normal adults under increased processing load conditions. Research design: A randomized block, repeated measures design was used to examine confrontation-naming response latency and accuracy using a computerized experimental program. Methods and procedures: Twenty-four adults having sustained a MTBI (aged 18-53) and 24 age-matched controls named pictures from three levels of vocabulary as quickly and accurately as possible. All MTBI participants were assessed with the Scales of Cognitive Ability for Traumatic Brain Injury (SCATBI) for later comparison. Main outcomes and results: The results revealed a main effect of group (p <= 0.001) for the latency data and a group by vocabulary level interaction (p=0.043) for the accuracy data. No significant correlations were found between response latency and accuracy with performance on the SCATBI. Reaction time measures may reveal inefficiencies not tapped by traditional measures.