Cognitive correlates of narrative impairment in moderate traumatic brain injury

Traumaticbraininjuries(TBIs)areoftenassociatedwithcommunicativedeficits. Theincoherentand impoverishedlanguageobservedinnon-aphasicindividualswithsevereTBIhasbeenlinkedtoa problem intheglobalorganizationofinformationatthetextlevel.Thepresentstudyaimedtoanalyze the featuresofnarrativediscourseimpairmentinagroupofadultswithmoderateTBI(modTBI).10non- aphasic speakerswithmodTBIand20neurologicallyintactparticipantswererecruitedforthe experiment.Theircognitive,linguisticandnarrativeskillswerethoroughlyassessed.Thepersonswith modTBI exhibitednormalphonological,lexicalandgrammaticalskills.However,theirnarrativeswere characterizedbylowerlevelsofLexicalInformativenessandmoreerrorsofbothLocalandGlobal Coherence that,attimes,madetheirnarrativesvagueandambiguous.Significant correlationswere found betweenthesenarrativedifficulties andtheproductionofbothperseverativeandnon- perseverativeerrorsontheWCST.Thesedisturbancesconfirm previous findings whichsuggestadeficit at theinterfacebetweencognitiveandlinguisticprocessingratherthanaspecific linguisticdisturbance in thesepatients.