Diffusion tensor imaging correlates of resilience following adolescent traumatic brain injury

• Main Authors: Biekman, B.D (Author), Chu, Z.D (Author), Dennis, E. (Author), Formon, D.L (Author), Hanten, G.R (Author), Hunter, J.V (Author), Levin, H.S (Author), Lindsey, H.M (Author), Schmidt, A.T (Author), Spruiell, M.S (Author), Wilde, E.A (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins 2021
• Subjects: adolescent; Adolescent; anisotropy; Article; brain; Brain; brain concussion; Brain Concussion; Brain Injuries, Traumatic; capsula interna; clinical article; corpus callosum; Corpus Callosum; diagnostic imaging; diffusion tensor imaging; Diffusion tensor imaging; Diffusion Tensor Imaging; fatigue; female; fractional anisotropy; head injury; human; Humans; male; mental disease; myelination; nerve cell plasticity; neuroimaging; Neuroimaging; neuropsychological test; nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; quality control; questionnaire; Resilience; Resilience-promoting factors; schizophrenia; social interaction; traffic accident; traumatic brain injury; Traumatic brain injury; white matter; White Matter
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher
• ISBN: 15433633 (ISSN)
• DOI: 10.1097/WNN.0000000000000283

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with considerable mortality and morbidity in adolescents, but positive outcomes are possible. Resilience is the concept that some individuals flourish despite significant adversity. Objective: To determine if there is a relationship between resilience-promoting factors that are known to promote resilience and white matter (WM) microstructure 1 year after complicated mild TBI or moderate or severe TBI that is sustained by adolescents. Method: We examined the relationship between performance on a self-report measure of resilience-promoting factors and WM integrity assessed by diffusion tensor imaging in a group of adolescents who had sustained either a TBI (n = 38) or an orthopedic injury (OI) (n = 23). Results: Immediately following injury, the individuals with TBI and the OI controls had comparable levels of resiliencepromoting factors; however, at 1 year post injury, the TBI group endorsed fewer resilience-promoting factors and exhibited WM disruption compared with the OI controls. The individuals with TBI who had more resilience-promoting factors at 1 year post injury exhibited increased WM integrity, but the OI controls did not. Findings were particularly strong for the following structures: Anterior corona radiata, anterior limb of the internal capsule, and genu of the corpus callosum-structures that are implicated in social cognition and are frequently disrupted after TBI. Relationships were notable for caregiver and communitylevel resilience-promoting factors. Conclusion: The current findings are some of the first to indicate neurobiological evidence of previously noted buffering effects of resilience-promoting factors in individuals with TBI. © 2021 Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. All rights reserved.