Type of Study: Research Study

Subjects: 8 adolescents with closed head injury (ages 13-19), and 8 controls (normal adolescents) matched for age, race, gender and socioeconomic status. Subjects varied slightly in severity of head injury. All CHI participants sustained injury to the pre-frontal cortex during motor vehicle accidents.

Purpose:
• To determine if there is a relationship between executive function (EF) and working memory (WM) in people with and without closed head injury.
• If a significant correlation exists between EF & WM, to elucidate treatment implications.

Methods: Severity of injury was established for CHI participants by using the Scales of Cognitive Ability for Traumatic Brain Injury (SCATBI) and executive function abilities were determined by using the Profile of Executive Functioning (Pro-Ex). The Pro-Ex assessed seven different component areas: goal selection, planning and sequencing, initiation, execution, time sense, awareness of deficits, and self-monitoring. Working memory was also assessed using the Recognition Memory Test (RMT). The researchers determined if any correlations between executive function and working memory existed.

Results: Results indicated a relation between executive function and working memory, severity of injury and test performance, and the need to assess executive function of closed head injury adolescents with a measure of daily functioning.
Discussion: Both for CHI participants and normal controls, the results of this study show a relation between performance on a test of executive function, the Pro-Ex, and a measure of verbal working memory, the RMT. The strong relation found between EF and WM may be accounted for by the fact that skills in everyday activities were assessed, which require frequent updating of some information while holding other information in storage. Because findings suggest that EF is involved in verbal memory updating, practitioners may find it beneficial to assess both EF and WM in adolescents with closed head injury.