CHANGES IN FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY FOLLOWING INTENSIVE ATTENTION TRAINING IN PATIENTS WITH TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY. A PILOT STUDY

Objective To explore functional connectivity after intensive attention training in the chronic phase after traumatic brain injury as clinical evidence indicates that intensive attention training improves attention dysfunction in persons with traumatic brain injury. Design and subjects A case series study. Two young adults, 13- and 18-months post traumatic brain injury, with traumatic brain injury induced attention deficits were assigned to 20 h of intensive attention training and neuroimaging. Methods Functional magnetic resonance imaging during a psychomotor vigilance test was conducted pre- and post-intervention. Results The neuroimaging indicated both increased and decreased connectivity density in frontal, posterior and subcortical brain regions, for some regions with separate change patterns for left and right hemisphere respectively, and an overall reduction in variability in functional connectivity. Conclusion The changed and decreased variability of functional connectivity in various brain regions, captured by fMRI during a psychomotor vigilance test after direct attention training in a small sample of persons with traumatic brain injury, suggests further studies of functional connectivity changes in neural networks. LAY ABSTRACT In our study, we wanted to know how the brain changes after intensive attention training. Two young adults with traumatic brain injury (car accident and fall from height) were administered intensive attention training for 20 h. To measure the intervention effect, the patients underwent a brain scan in an MRI-camera, while performing a test of vigilance. The vigilance test requires that you use your attention. The brain imaging showed that the brain activity was more stable and with less variability after the attention training. These findings suggest the potential benefit of attention training in regulating neural networks. More studies are needed to better illustrate the linkage between changes in the brain and intervention effect.