Evaluating the effects of brain injury, disease and tasks on cognitive fatigue

Abstract

Because cognitive fatigue (CF) is common and debilitating following brain injury or disease we investigated the relationships among CF, behavioral performance, and cerebral activation within and across populations by combining the data from two cross-sectional studies. Individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) were included to model CF resulting from neurological disease; individuals who had sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) were included to model CF resulting from neurological insult; both groups were compared with a control group (Controls). CF was induced while neuroimaging data was acquired using two different tasks. CF significantly differed between the groups, with the clinical groups reporting more CF than Controls—a difference that was statistically significant for the TBI group and trended towards significance for the MS group. The accrual of CF did not differ across the three groups; and CF ratings were consistent across tasks. Increasing CF was associated with longer response time for all groups. The brain activation in the caudate nucleus and the thalamus was consistently correlated with CF in all three groups, while more dorsally in the caudate, activation differed across the groups. These results suggest the caudate and thalamus to be central to CF while more dorsal aspects of the caudate may be sensitive to damage associated with particular types of insult.

Asking questions that are “close to the bone”: integrating thematic analysis and natural language processing to explore the experiences of people with traumatic brain injuries engaging with patient-reported outcome measures

“…Among the barriers mentioned by participants, there were aspects related to the difficulty in completing PROMs and the need for more information on their role and importance for service provision and improvement. The difficulties affecting completion were mostly related to TBI symptoms, such as memory impairment and response fatigue, which are commonly reported by individuals with TBIs ( 87 – 89 ). This calls for the need to keep PROMs conceptually relevant but also accessible and easy to understand, particularly in consideration of the cognitive challenges that might create an additional burden to people with a TBI engaging with self-reported outcome measures ( 90 , 91 ).…”

Examining the Landscape of Cognitive Fatigue Detection: A Comprehensive Survey

“…Moreover, in the context of health, cognitive fatigue can exert a negative impact on diverse medical conditions, including multiple sclerosis [23,26,36], Parkinson's disease [37], and traumatic brain injury [2], where it can exacerbate the challenges of coping with these illnesses. A study [38] by Wylie et al showed that individuals who have suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) experience similar levels of cognitive fatigue (CF) as those with multiple sclerosis (MS), but both groups reported higher levels of CF compared to healthy control individuals.…”