Abstract
IntroductionMild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) can result in many structural abnormalities in the cerebral cortex. While thinning of the cortex has been shown in mTBI patients, there is high regional variability in reported findings. High‐resolution imaging can elucidate otherwise unnoticed changes in cortical measures following injury. This study examined age‐related patterns of cortical thickness in U.S. active duty service members and veterans with a history of mTBI (n = 66) as compared to a normative population (n = 67).MethodsUsing a fully automated cortical parcellation methodology, cortical thickness measures were extracted from 31 bilateral cortical regions for all participants.ResultsThe effect of diagnosis and age on cortical thickness (group × age interaction) was found to be significant (p < 0.05) for many regions, including bilateral parietal and left frontal and temporal cortices. Findings held for a male‐only subset, and there was no effect of time since injury in any regions.ConclusionsThe presence of mTBI appeared to accelerate age‐related cortical thinning across the cortex in our study population.
Highlights
Mild traumatic brain injury can result in many structural abnor‐ malities in the cerebral cortex
Given the known effects of injury on cortical measures, it is possible for Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) to exacerbate the normal cortical thinning that is present in older age
The present study examined the effects of age and mTBI on cortical thickness in regions comprising the entire cortex
Summary
33.2 ± 7.3 (21–53) 65 M, 1 F 23.6 ± 16 (4–60) 3.36 ± 2.3 (1–12) 1.72 ± 1.6 (0–7) 34/66 (51.5%) 26/66 (39.4%) 34.8 ± 10.3 (18–53) 47 M, 20 F. Some studies of TBI have reported abnormalities in cortical thickness after injury (Govindarajan et al, 2016; King, Lopez‐Larson, & Yurgelun‐Todd, 2016; Michael et al, 2015; Tate et al, 2014), but findings were regionally variable and inconsistent across acute and chronic mTBI populations. Given the known effects of injury on cortical measures, it is possible for mTBI to exacerbate the normal cortical thinning that is present in older age. To this end, the present study examined the effects of age and mTBI on cortical thickness in regions comprising the entire cortex. We hypoth‐ esized that older individuals with a history of mTBI would have greater thinning of the cortex than older individuals with no mTBI history
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