Abstract:
The Spaulding/Partners Traumatic Brain Injury Model System (TBIMS) at Harvard Medical School is a partnership among Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. Also included are Community Rehab Care, Massachusetts Mentor, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Statewide Head Injury Program, and the North Andover Specialty Care Center. In addition to participating in the collection of acute care, rehabilitation, and follow-up data as part of the TBIMS National Database, the Spaulding/Partners TBIMS is conducting a study that will take an important step toward the development of functional neuroimaging as a tool that may guide cognitive rehabilitation for individuals with TBI. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the study consists of cross-sectional and longitudinal components: (1) In the cross-sectional component, regional brain activation during memorization of word lists is assessed, under spontaneous and trained/cued categorization strategy conditions. Activation of prefrontal cerebral cortical regions known to support the use of such a strategy will be compared in subjects with TBI and non-TBI controls;(2)In the longitudinal component, the ability of the fMRI findings to predict outcome among people with TBI who participate in a community integration program with a cognitive rehabilitation focus is being determined using regression analyses. The Spaulding/Partners TBIMS publishes research findings in professional journals and presents relevant papers and posters at local, regional, national, and international professional and/or consumer-oriented meetings. It also publishes an annual newsletter.

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