Schedule of Events | Search Abstracts | Invited Symposia | Symposia | Poster Sessions | Data Blitz

Persistent deficits in attention errors and emotion regulation in young adults with a history of mTBI

Poster Session C - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 5:00 – 7:00 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Tala Tayem¹ (), Adam Cox², Myra Fernandes¹; ¹University of Waterloo, ²Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario

Long after experiencing a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), individuals report lingering attention and memory difficulties. They are more at risk for depression, and report changes in mood. Reliably documenting deficits, however, may be hampered by small sample sizes in past studies. This large-scale, multi-year study examined consequences of a remote mTBI in a large sample (N = 7,256). We compared performance in individuals with and without a self-reported mild head injury in their past, in separate groups of male and female undergraduates. They completed the (1) Attention-Related Cognitive Errors Scale (ARCES) tabulating cognitive failures in daily life due to inattention, (2) Difficulties in Emotional Regulation Scale (DERS) assessing affect and its control, and (3) Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) measuring endorsement of negative emotional symptoms. Replicated over multiple terms, individuals with a remote mTBI reported significantly higher scores on the ARCES, DERS and DASS than controls. Overall, females compared to males reported more everyday cognitive failures and difficulties in emotional regulation. Notably, however, in males with a remote mTBI, cognitive failures (ARCES) were uniquely predicted by endorsement of difficulties in emotional regulation (DERS). On-going difficulties with emotional control may underlie the cognitive deficits experienced by males with remote mTBI. Overall, results demonstrate more attention-related errors in daily life (enhanced mind-wandering and attention slips) and persistent difficulties with emotional control (reduced focus and negative affect) continue to plague those with mTBI long after injury.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions