Verbal learning in traumatic brain injury

Difficulties in learning, deficits in new information recall, and span reduction are recurrent in subjects who have incurred in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and may endure for years. In the present study, we have studied immediate recall, verbal learning and recollection, through the learning of a list of words (Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test -RAVLT-; Rey 1964) in TBI patients. We have analysed the effects of evolution on performances, comparing results in RAVLT in different evolutionary stages (from clinic intake to one year following TBI). Sample: 100 adult subjects with TBI studied in 4 evolutionary stages and 100 normal adult subjects with similar demographic characteristics. Statistical analysis: repeated measure Anovas and a posteriori Scheffe F-test. The results show that the ability to perform immediate recall tasks reaches a normal level after six months. Verbal learning and material retention ability, however, are still altered in studies one year after TBI.