Pediatric traumatic brain injury and procedural memory

This study investigated the effects of pediatric Traumatic brain injury (TBI) on procedural memory. Fifteen children with moderate to severe TBI and 15 matched controls were compared on two procedural-memory tasks: motor-perceptual (rotary pursuit) and cognitive (mirror reading). Explicit-memory tasks were also completed: recall or recognition of rotary-pursuit items and mirror-reading words. On both procedural tasks, the TBI group learned at a similar rate and retained equally well as the controls. On the explicit-memory tasks, however, the TBI group recalled and recognized fewer test items than the controls. These results are consistent with those reported in the adult TBI literature and suggest that procedural memory, a type of implicit memory, is preserved in children with TBI. Implications of these findings for the management and rehabilitation of children with TBI were discussed.