Chapter 10: Functional Predictors for Prognosis and Recovery after Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Although clinical evaluation of moderate and severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) relies on conventional neuroimaging modalities, evaluation of mild TBI (mTBI) relies primarily on functional assessment modalities. Functional assessment refers to the evaluation of skills and behaviors that are purported to be linked to the functions of particular cerebral areas, neural pathways, or cortical networks and relate to human functioning in everyday life. In practice, these assessment measures include neuropsychological testing, self-report measures of symptoms and functioning, and neurobehavioral testing. Performance on assessment measures in the acute stage of recovery from mTBI can be useful in prognosis and in predicting recovery. However, pre-injury risk factors also influence recovery course following mTBI, including patient characteristics and pre-injury conditions. In conjunction with biomarkers and imaging modalities, current research is focused on the development of more sophisticated neurobehavioral testing by advancing tools to evaluate oculomotor and vestibular dysfunction following mTBI.