Time dependent differences in gray matter volume post mild traumatic brain injury.

Abstract

When the brain is subjected to excessive physical forces, including blunt impact, high-speed rotation, or blast overpressure waves, its tissue structure and function can be compromised, leading to traumatic brain injury (TBI). Based on the level of structural and functional damage, these injuries can be classified as mild, moderate, or severe, with mild TBI (mTBI) being by far the most common. Also known as concussion, mTBI frequently occurs in a wide variety of activities, including accidental falls, sports injuries, moving vehicle accidents, military training, and combat related events such as blast exposure. mTBI can lead to various cognitive, sensory and motor complaints like reduced memory, attention, and information processing speed, and emotional dysregulation (Carroll et al., 2004). Most individuals with mTBI will recover from these symptoms within 90 days post injury (Karr et al., 2014), but for some individuals, the symptoms may be protracted, persisting up to a year or longer (Satz et al., 1999). For a small minority of individuals, these cognitive and emotional symptoms are severe enough to significantly affect social and occupational functioning.