A new study reveals that individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) have significantly more difficulty with gist reasoning than traditional cognitive tests. Using a unique cognitive assessment developed by researchers at the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas, findings published Friday in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology indicate that an individual's ability to "get the gist or extract the essence of a message" after a TBI more strongly predicts his or her ability to effectively hold a job or maintain a household than previously revealed by traditional cognitive tests alone. The study also further validates the Center for BrainHealth's gist reasoning assessment as an informative tool capable of estimating a broad range of daily life skills.
"Gist reasoning characterizes a meaningful, complex cognitive capacity. Assessing how well one understands and expresses big ideas from information they are exposed, commonly known as an ability to "get the gist", is window into real life functionality. I do not know of any other paper and pencil test that can tell us both," explained Asha Vas, Ph.D., research scientist at the Center for BrainHealth and lead study author. "Although performance on traditional cognitive tests is informative, widely-used measures do not paint the full picture. Adults with TBI often fare average or above on these structured measures. All too often, adults with brain injury have been told that they ought to be fine; in reality, they are not doing and thinking like they used to prior to the injury and struggle managing everyday life responsibilities years after the injury. Gist reasoning could be a sensitive tool to connect some of those dots as to why they are having trouble with real-life functionality despite falling into the range of "normal" on other cognitive tests." For more details and the longer article, click here.

Tags: TBI, traumatic brain injury, Center for BrainHealth