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Head injuries can make children loners

Date:
April 10, 2014
Source:
Brigham Young University
Summary:
Kids three years after an initial head incident were found to have lingering injury in the brain's right frontal lobe, which is associated with lower social competence (participation in groups, number of friends, etc.), a new study finds. The study also suggests that therapy designed to improve working memory might 'treat' the social difficulties.
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New research has found that a child's relationships may be a hidden casualty long after a head injury.

Neuroscientists at Brigham Young University studied a group of children three years after each had suffered a traumatic brain injury -- most commonly from car accidents. The researchers found that lingering injury in a specific region of the brain predicted the health of the children's social lives.

"The thing that's hardest about brain injury is that someone can have significant difficulties but they still look okay," said Shawn Gale, a neuropsychologist at BYU. "But they have a harder time remembering things and focusing on things as well and that affects the way they interact with other people. Since they look fine, people don't cut them as much slack as they ought to."

Gale and Ph.D. student Ashley Levan authored a study to be published April 10 by the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation. The study compared the children's social lives and thinking skills with the thickness of the brain's outer layer in the frontal lobe. The brain measurements came from MRI scans and the social information was gathered from parents on a variety of dimensions, such as their children's participation in groups, number of friends and amount of time spent with friends.

A second finding from the new study suggests one potential way to help. The BYU scholars found that physical injury and social withdrawal are connected through something called "cognitive proficiency." Cognitive proficiency is the combination of short-term memory and the brain's processing speed.

"In social interactions we need to process the content of what a person is saying in addition to simultaneously processing nonverbal cues," Levan said. "We then have to hold that information in our working memory to be able to respond appropriately. If you disrupt working memory or processing speed it can result in difficulty with social interactions."

Separate studies on children with ADHD, which also affects the frontal lobes, show that therapy can improve working memory. Gale would like to explore in future research with BYU's MRI facility if improvements in working memory could "treat" the social difficulties brought on by head injuries.

"This is a preliminary study but we want to go into more of the details about why working memory and processing speed are associated with social functioning and how specific brain structures might be related to improve outcome," Gale said.


Story Source:

Materials provided by Brigham Young University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Ashley Levan, Leslie Baxter, C. Brock Kirwan, Garrett Black, Shawn D. Gale. Right Frontal Pole Cortical Thickness and Social Competence in Children With Chronic Traumatic Brain Injury. Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, 2014; 1 DOI: 10.1097/HTR.0000000000000040

Cite This Page:

Brigham Young University. "Head injuries can make children loners." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 10 April 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140410083505.htm>.
Brigham Young University. (2014, April 10). Head injuries can make children loners. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140410083505.htm
Brigham Young University. "Head injuries can make children loners." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140410083505.htm (accessed March 28, 2024).

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