Reduced mismatch negativity in college students with a history of mTBI

Poster Session E - Monday, April 15, 2024, 2:30 – 4:30 pm EDT, Sheraton Hall ABC

Lena L. Kemmelmeier¹ (lkemmelmeier@nevada.unr.edu), Jenna N. Pablo¹, Jorja Shires¹, Hector Arciniega², Wendy A. Torrens¹, Sarah M. Haigh¹, Marian E. Berryhill¹; ¹University of Nevada, Reno, ²New York University Grossman School of Medicine

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), or concussion, is a public health concern, as ~ 2,000,000 individuals seek treatment per year in the United States alone. Cognitive symptoms of mTBI (e.g., attentional deficits, slower processing speed, and memory impairments) usually resolve within three months of injury. However, a subset of individuals experience lasting cognitive deficits, suggesting consequences persist. For example, on average, our undergraduates with a history of mTBI (>4 years post-injury) exhibited worse visual working memory performance than those without a history of mTBI. Here, to track the earliest identifiable effect of mTBI, we tested if a persistent deficit occurs in early sensory responses. Mismatch Negativity (MMN) is an event-related potential (ERP) that occurs in a pre-attentive response to deviant stimuli. Past literature reports a reduced MMN in patients with traumatic brain injury and retired athletes with repetitive mTBI history, suggesting functional abnormalities in involuntary attention. We assessed whether mTBI (average injury = 3 years ago) is associated with an attenuated auditory MMN amplitude. We collected EEG (32-channel, Biosemi) data from individuals with a history of mTBI (n=10) and individuals without a history of mTBI (n=10). During EEG recording, participants listened to standard tones (80%) and infrequent pitch-deviant tones (20%). Relative to controls, there was a significant decrease in the mTBI MMN amplitude with a large effect size (t=2.05, p=.05, d=0.92). These findings suggest sensory processing is also affected, adding to our understanding of the scope of persistent consequences after mTBI.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Audition