Effects of a Disengagement Intervention on Cognitive Performance in Those with a Mild Head Injury
type: CreativeWork
description: Mild head injury (MHI) is a major public health concern and cognitive fatigue following injury is one of the most commonly reported and debilitating symptoms that interfere with everyday life. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is especially susceptible during injury and is an important brain region in the context of traumatic brain injury; the vmPFC is responsible for regulating physiological arousal and the neuropathology following MHI has been shown to lead to physiological underarousal. Dampened physiological arousal has been shown to precede and give rise to cognitive fatigue, and that more severe injuries lead to both worsened physiological arousal and fatigue outcomes. The frontal regions most susceptible during injury are also largely involved in attentional processes, such that attentional processes are compromised following the neuropathology associated with MHI as well as from the onset of cognitive fatigue. Attentional deficits then arise in those with a history of MHI as a function of injury as well as cognitive fatigue compounding together; these attentional deficits then go on to impair overall cognitive functions which then present as poor performance on cognitively demanding tasks and, or, as a lessened ability to make optimal decisions in everyday life. Due to this, physiological arousal may then reflect cognitive resources available to individuals, and an opportunity to replenish these cognitive resources (i.e., a disengagement intervention) may lead to better performance outcomes on cognitively demanding tasks as well as improved fatigue ratings. This study sought to examine the effects of a disengagement intervention on cognitive performance across cognitively demanding tasks (i.e., Go/No-Go Task and Mental Rotation Task [MR Task]) in those with, and without, a history of MHI. It was found that those with a history of MHI exhibited lower physiological arousal as a function of injury severity, higher fatigue, and required more effort to m…
abstract: Mild head injury (MHI) is a major public health concern and cognitive fatigue following injury is one of the most commonly reported and debilitating symptoms that interfere with everyday life. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is especially susceptible during injury and is an important brain region in the context of traumatic brain injury; the vmPFC is responsible for regulating physiological arousal and the neuropathology following MHI has been shown to lead to physiological underarousal. Dampened physiological arousal has been shown to precede and give rise to cognitive fatigue, and that more severe injuries lead to both worsened physiological arousal and fatigue outcomes. The frontal regions most susceptible during injury are also largely involved in attentional processes, such that attentional processes are compromised following the neuropathology associated with MHI as well as from the onset of cognitive fatigue. Attentional deficits then arise in those with a history of MHI as a function of injury as well as cognitive fatigue compounding together; these attentional deficits then go on to impair overall cognitive functions which then present as poor performance on cognitively demanding tasks and, or, as a lessened ability to make optimal decisions in everyday life. Due to this, physiological arousal may then reflect cognitive resources available to individuals, and an opportunity to replenish these cognitive resources (i.e., a disengagement intervention) may lead to better performance outcomes on cognitively demanding tasks as well as improved fatigue ratings. This study sought to examine the effects of a disengagement intervention on cognitive performance across cognitively demanding tasks (i.e., Go/No-Go Task and Mental Rotation Task [MR Task]) in those with, and without, a history of MHI. It was found that those with a history of MHI exhibited lower physiological arousal as a function of injury severity, higher fatigue, and required more effort to m…
author: Amodio, Francesco
language: eng
keywords: Neuropsychology, Mild Head Injury, Cognitive Fatigue, Attention, Physiological Arousal, Disengagement Intervention
date published: 2023-10-27T14:50:37Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:23:20Z
provider: Brock University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Brock University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/10464/18181