Top-Down Executive Control in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), PTSD and Combined

Inclusion Criteria

• •All subjects will be between 18 and 40 years of age.
• •In order to be included in the mTBI group, participants must have sustained between 1 and 3 mild TBIs. The criteria for TBI will be consistent with what the VA currently uses (i.e., American Congress of Rehabilitative Medicine).
• •More specifically, patients will have sustained a traumatically induced physiologic disruption of brain function as indicated by at least one of the following:
• •* any period of loss of consciousness,
• •* any loss of memory for events immediately before or after the accident,
• •* any alteration in mental status at the time of the accident, and
• •* focal neurologic deficits.
• •Additional criteria for TBI include:
• •* TBI must have been sustained during OEF or OIF and
• •* TBI must consist of less than 30 minutes loss of consciousness, posttraumatic amnesia of less than 1 hour, and no positive CT/MRI findings.
• •For PTSD group inclusion, psychiatric diagnoses will be established via the PTSD Clinical Checklist- Military (PCL-M) and the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS).
• •For PTSD/mTBI group inclusion, the above criteria must be met for both PTSD and mTBI.
• •Control subjects will be OEF/OIF veterans with a history of exposure to combat without current or previous diagnosis of PTSD and no history of TBI.