Changes in Cortical Grey Matter Volumes After Plasticity-based Auditory Information Processing Remediation Training in Adults with a Chronic Traumatic Brain Injury: A Pilot Study

Research Objectives: Examine changes in cortical gray matter following computerized cognitive training for auditory information processing in chronic adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Design: 14-week, quasi-experimental design.

Setting: Laboratory

Participants: Nineteen adults (intervention: 11; control: 8) with mild to severe TBI (mean age = 42.6 years [SD = 11.0], male = 58%, time since injury = 124.6 months [SD = 146.1]).

Interventions: The intervention group underwent 40 one-hour sessions over 14 weeks with the Brain Fitness Program, focusing on auditory information processing exercises. Training progressively increased in difficulty, ensuring an 85% correct response rate. Participants used noise-canceling headphones. The control group did not receive an intervention but was contacted once a week.

Main Outcome Measures: MRI data was captured twice (baseline & one-week post-training) at NYU's Center for Biomedical Imaging on a 3T Siemens Tim Trio or Prisma Fit whole-body scanner using a 12-channel head coil. Cortical surface reconstruction and data extraction were facilitated by FreeSurfer.

Results: While none of the results remained statistically significant after controlling for multiple comparisons with False Discovery Rate correction, the intervention group exhibited more pronounced post-intervention gray matter volume (GMV) changes compared to the control group in both the left and right brain lobes (left: f2 = 0.213; right: f2 = 0.510). Notably, the right frontal (f2 = 0.736) and right occipital (f2 = 0.617) regions exhibited large effects. Medium effects were found in the left occipital (f2 = 0.342), left frontal (f2 = 0.201), and right parietal regions (f2 = 0.156).

Conclusions: Preliminary findings indicate that computerized auditory information processing training induces neuroplastic changes in GMV in chronic TBI populations.

Author(s) Disclosures: None