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Characterising error-awareness of attentional lapses and inhibitory control failures in patients with traumatic brain injury

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Abstract

Awareness deficits are a significant problem following traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study examined error processing as candidate marker of awareness and compared the performance of 18 TBI participants and 18 controls using an online error-monitoring task while participants performed simple go/no-go tasks. Error-monitoring performance was compared where the no-go target was part of (a) a predictive sequence, (b) predictive sequence plus a dual-task element and (c) a random sequence. Results showed that the TBI participants, in contrast to control participants, were significantly impaired at monitoring their errors during both predictive sequence tasks but were not impaired on the random sequence task. These findings suggest that following TBI, when an error is more impulsive it may be more easily monitored, whereas when an error is characterised by attentional drift, subsequent error-processing mechanisms may fail to engage. Higher levels of online error-awareness were also associated with lower levels of anxiety, fewer symptoms of frontal dysfunction and greater competence in everyday functioning.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the participants from the National Rehabilitation Hospital, Dun Laoghaire, without whom this research would not be possible. This work was supported by a Government of Ireland Scholarship administered by the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences to Fiadhnait O’Keeffe and by the Irish Higher Education Authority’s Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions (8AA. G03007) to Professor Ian Robertson.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and Department of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland

    F. M. O’Keeffe, P. M. Dockree, P. Moloney & I. H. Robertson

  2. Department of Clinical Neuropsychology, National Rehabilitation Hospital, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, Ireland

    F. M. O’Keeffe & S. Carton

Authors
  1. F. M. O’Keeffe
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  2. P. M. Dockree
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  3. P. Moloney
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  4. S. Carton
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  5. I. H. Robertson
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Correspondence to I. H. Robertson.

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O’Keeffe, F.M., Dockree, P.M., Moloney, P. et al. Characterising error-awareness of attentional lapses and inhibitory control failures in patients with traumatic brain injury. Exp Brain Res 180, 59–67 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-006-0832-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-006-0832-9

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