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BRAIN INJURY

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BRAIN INJURY

A brain injury is any damage to the brain that disrupts its normal function. This can affect how a person thinks, communicates, moves, feels, and behaves. There are two main types:

1. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Caused by an external force, such as:

  • A blow to the head (e.g., from a fall, car accident, sports injury)
  • A penetrating object

2. Acquired Brain Injury (ABI)

Occurs after birth and is not due to trauma. Causes include:

  • Substance abuse or poisoning
  • Stroke
  • Brain tumor
  • Lack of oxygen (anoxic brain injury)
  • Infections (like meningitis or encephalitis)

The six key domains of cognitive function.

These domains are often assessed by a speech therapist during cognitive evaluations, especially after stroke, TBI, or in neurodegenerative conditions:

1. Attention
  • The ability to focus, sustain, and shift mental focus.
  • Includes selective attention, divided attention, and sustained attention.
  • EXAMPLE: Listening to a speaker in a noisy room.

DEFICITS PRESENT AS: Difficulty multitasking, easily distracted, inability to organize and manage time, decreased concentration.

2. Memory
  • The ability to encode, store, and retrieve information.
  • Includes short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory (episodic, semantic).
  • EXAMPLE: Listening to a speaker in a noisy room.

DEFICITS PRESENT AS: Difficulty remembering recent events, conversations, or following instructions. Difficulty with planning and decision-making. Repeating questions and statements.

3. Executive Function
  • High-level processes that manage other cognitive functions.
  • Includes planning, organizing, problem-solving, inhibition, attention and mental flexibility.
  • EXAMPLE: Remembering a list of words or past events.

DEFICITS PRESENT AS: Difficulty managing tasks, impulses, medications, a calendar and/or emotions.

4. Language
  • The ability to understand and produce spoken and written language.
  • 3 categories: receptive, verbal, and pragmatic (using language socially to engage)
  • EXAMPLE: Naming objects or forming coherent sentences.

DEFICITS PRESENT AS: Trouble with vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, or understanding what others are saying.

5. Visuospatial Skills
  • Understanding how objects relate to each other in space (e.g., above, below, beside).
  • Visual neglect-not being aware of stimuli on one side of the visual field, even though it can technically be seen.
  • EXAMPLE: Reading a map or copying a drawing.

DEFICITS PRESENT AS: Bumping into things, poor depth perception, difficulty recognizing faces and driving.

6. Processing Speed
  • The pace at which the brain takes in, understands, and responds to information.
  • Often impacted after brain injury or in cognitive decline.
  • EXAMPLE: Quickly responding to a traffic light change.

DEFICITS PRESENT AS: Taking longer to answer, getting overwhelmed by too much information, struggle to follow conversations.