Motor dysfunction profiles in traumatic brain injury and postconcussion syndrome

Abstract

Motor measures are sensitive to central lesions, but they are also affected by peripheral injury and motivation. The motor skills profiles of proven brain injury clients were compared with the profiles of healthy postconcussion patients. The chief result was a double dissociation: The traumatic brain injury (TBI) group produced a motor dysfunction gradient consistent with upper motor neuron disease, while the compensation-seeking postconcussion group produced a nonphysiologic pattern. Objective measures of behavioral pain and emotional distress did not correlate with the findings. Motor skill deficiencies in postconcussion syndrome (PCS) are probably functional in nature. (JINS, 1996, 2, 477-485.)

Sensitivity to Brain Dysfunction of the Halstead-Reitan vs an Ability-Focused Neuropsychological Battery

“…By contrast, Table 1 shows that the controls outperformed the brain-dysfunction participants on GPB. This atypical pattern (poorer simple compared to complex motor performance) for the control vs brain-impaired participants is reminiscent of the atypical motor performance pattern in persons suspected of malingering (Greiffenstein, Baker, & Gola, 1996). Thus, although we attempted to control for poor effort excluding individuals with abnormally low Digit Span, or abnormally large differences between Vocabulary and Digit Span, it appears that participants with reduced effort may remain in the present sample.…”

Use of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test in the Detection of Malingering in Student Simulator and Patient Samples

“…Although the majority of malingering detection techniques have been developed for memory complaints, others have recently focused on non-memory performance, such as attention relative to memory (Bernard, McGrath, & Houston,1996), visual processing (Binks, Gouvier, & Walters, 1997), motor functioning (Greiffenstein, Baker, & Gola, 1996;Rapport, Farchione, Coleman, & Axelrod, 1998), and executive functioning (Bernard et al, 1996). Bernard and colleagues (1996) used the pattern of performance technique to analyze a non-memory test, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), as a malingering detection device.…”

Potential neuropsychological profiles in welders occupationally exposed to manganese: An examination of effect size patterns

“…They considered such a pattern atypical and unlikely, as the hierarchically organized motor system should first result in gross motor impairment, followed by fine motor impairment. Moreover, the above pattern of motor impairment has been associated with exaggerated deficits in neurologically intact litigants claiming brain damage (Greiffenstein, Baker, & Gola, 1996) and undergraduates instructed to simulate brain damage (Rapport, Farchione, Coleman, & Axelrod, 1998). This hypothesis warrants further investigation, as all the welder participants in the Bowler et al studies were current litigants.…”