Exploratory study of HRB signs, patterns, and right-left differences relating to spatial cognition following nonimpact mild traumatic brain injury

Abstract

Sweeney and Johnson found that response time on the Tactile Form Recognition Test (TFR) of the Halstead-Reitan Test Battery (HRB) requiring speeded tactile- and visual-spatial recognition was deficient for Nonimpact mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) individuals in comparison to Impact mTBI and No mTBI participants. A follow-up study by Sweeney and Slade noted that skills most sensitive to Deficient TFR performance of mTBI subjects involved tactile-spatial perception, with lateralization of inferior performances contralateral to cerebral regions known to specialize in the spatial skills required. The current study compared frequencies of HRB Pathognomonic Signs, atypical Score Patterns, and abnormal Right-Left Differences for Nonimpact mTBI groups that exhibited Deficient, Perfectly Normal, or Normal TFR performances. The only statistically significant finding was that the Deficient TFR group produced a disproportionately greater number of errors with the right hand relative to the left hand on Fingertip Number Writing Perception. Deficient TFR mTBI individuals were 5.29 times more likely to commit errors with the right hand on the Fingertip Number Writing Perception Test than Perfectly Normal and Normal TFR mTBI subjects. Tentative clinical markers of neuropsychological changes that appear to be associated with Nonimpact mTBI, based on a series of investigations, were provided.