Effect of Frontal Lobe Traumatic Brain Injury on Sentence Comprehension and Working Memory

Abstract

Background: This study was conducted to examine the sentence comprehension and working memory in individuals with mild and moderate frontal lobe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and determine the relationship between them. Methods: Participants included 18 patients with mild TBI, 17 patients with moderate TBI and 18 non-TBI individuals. The digit span subtest of the Wechsler intelligence scale-IV (WISC-IV) and a N-back test were used to evaluate working memory. Moreover, the syntactic comprehension subtest of Bilingual Aphasia Test (BAT) was used for sentence comprehension assessment. Results: The results showed that patients with mild and moderate TBI had a lower performance in comprehension of non-canonical sentences and working memory compared to the non-TBI group. There was also a significant correlation between sentence comprehension and working memory in the TBI groups. Conclusions: Sentence comprehension and working memory in TBI patients with frontal lobe damage are significantly lower than that of the non-TBI group, which may lead to some daily communication problems in these individuals.