Psychophysiological underpinnings of cognitive reserve in older adults with mild traumatic brain injury
Psychophysiological underpinnings of cognitive reserve in older adults with mild traumatic brain injury
The studies in this dissertation of Sebastian Balart Sanchez explored how cognitive reserve (CR) influences cognitive processes and their neural underpinnings reflected in the electroencephalography (EEG) of older adults with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). A systematic review showed that the relationship between CR and electrophysiological measures varies across populations, tasks, and analysis methods. Following this, the data of three EEG experiments were analysed that were performed with older adults with mTBI and without mTBI: registration was done in participants executing a working memory task (N-back) or a selective attention task, or during a resting-state condition. Results from the working memory task showed that mTBI negatively affected performance, with CR playing a role in mitigating these effects particularly at higher task difficulties. However, CR did not consistently influence the P2 and P3 ERP components during execution of different cognitive tasks. During the selective attention task, CR was associated with changes in P2 characteristics but not with task performance. Additionally, our analysis of resting-state EEG did not reveal a link between alpha asymmetry and posttraumatic complaints or CR.
In summary, the findings presented in this thesis have expanded our understanding of how CR influences the effects of mTBI in older adults through the analysis of cognitive, behavioral, and EEG data during resting state and selective visual attention and working
memory task performance. Future research could capitalize on more challenging cognitive or emotional-task related paradigms, incorporating a longitudinal study design and exploring alternative EEG analyses such as frequency decomposition, and AI techniques to bridge the gap between research and clinical practice for older adults with mTBI.