Cognitive and neural characteristics of mathematical difficulties in children with traumatic brain injury following traffic accidents.

Traffic accidents are the most common cause of pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI). Understanding the cognitive sequelae of TBI following traffic accidents will contribute to successful rehabilitation. Although many studies investigated the general cognitive consequences of TBI, few examined its educational outcomes. The existing evidence reveals that mathematical performance is specifically compromised after TBI. However, a detailed characterization of the mathematical difficulties of children with TBI is lacking. This information is crucial to design appropriate interventions for these children. Such research is also needed because numerical skills are crucial to life success in western societies. The present project tries to provide an in depth characterization of the mathematical difficulties in children with TBI following traffic accidents. We will use a prospective longitudinal design and examine childrens numerical skills by using specifically designed experimental tasks. In addition to these cognitive measures, we will collect measures of brain structure and function, to examine the effect of TBI on the neural networks that are important for number and arithmetic. This will yield unprecedented insights into the relationship between brain injury and performance at both the behavioral and neurophysiological level.

Keywords:Traumatic brain injury, Mathematical difficulties, Magnitude representation, Arithmetic, Traffic accidents

Disciplines:Neurosciences, Biological and physiological psychology, Cognitive science and intelligent systems, Developmental psychology and ageing, Orthopedagogics and special education