This study was undertaken to establish empirically whether couples in which the husband has sustained a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) differed significantly, with respect to perceptions of husbands' interpersonal communication skills, from control couples in which the husband had sustained a traumatic orthopaedic injury (ORTHO) without injury to the brain. Fifty married couples (25 TBI dyads and 25 ORTHO dyads) were interviewed and completed a questionnaire for the study. Analysis of variance and planned comparisons were used to examine between- and within-group differences. TBI dyads were significantly different to control dyads with respect to perceptions of husbands' communication abilities. Both husbands and wives in long-term TBI dyads reported husbands to experience continuing interpersonal communication difficulties. As a group, TBI husbands self-reported significantly more communication difficulties than did ORTHO husbands. TBI wives and ORTHO wives also produced significantly different perceptions of their husbands' communication abilities. TBI wives perceived their husbands to have a number of interpersonal communication difficulties, while control group wives reported their husbands to be competent communicators.

Although the n-back task has been widely applied to neuroimagery investigations of working memory (WM), the role of practice effects on behavioural performance of this task has not yet been investigated. The current study aimed to investigate the effects of task complexity and familiarity on the n-back task. Seventy-seven participants (39 male, 38 female) completed a visuospatial n-back task four times, twice in two testing sessions separated by a week. Participants were required to remember either the first, second or third (n-back) most recent letter positions in a continuous sequence and to indicate whether the current item matched or did not match the remembered position. A control task, with no working memory requirements required participants to match to a predetermined stimulus position. In both testing sessions, reaction time (RT) and error rate increased with increasing WM load. An exponential slope for RTs in the first session indicated dual-task interference at the 3-back level. However, a linear slope in the second session indicated a reduction of dual-task interference. Attenuation of interference in the second session suggested a reduction in executive demands of the task with practice. This suggested that practice effects occur within the n-back task and need to be controlled for in future neuroimagery research using the task.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of methylphenidate on children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The study employed a conceptual framework of attention, consistent with contemporary theory, and including the following components: sustained attention, selective attention, divided attention, shifting attention, and speed of information processing. Fifteen children (12 boys and 3 girls) of normal intelligence, with a diagnosis of ADHD according to the DSM-IV criteria, and ranging in age from 8 to 11 years participated in the study. Children's attentional abilities were evaluated using the Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA-Ch: Manly, Roberston, Anderson, & Nimmo-Smith, 1999). A double-blind counterbalanced repeated-measures design approach was employed to tap on–off medication effects, and deviations from normal. Results showed that comparisons between on–off medication conditions generally detected few differences with respect to sustained and selective attention measures and simple processing speed. In contrast, for higher-level attention domains, including shifting and divided attention, children on medication demonstrated a speed–accuracy trade-off, exhibiting greater accuracy, but slower completion times. When data from the ADHD group were compared to controls a consistent pattern emerged, with children with ADHD in the medication condition being more accurate across all attention domains on all measures. While these children also tended to record slower completion times, group differences and effect sizes were of smaller magnitude. The findings of this study suggest a possible speed–accuracy trade-off effect for children with ADHD on medication.

The Resiliency Model of Family Stress, Adjustment and Adaptation is a theoretical framework used in this article to understand how families adapt when their child has had a traumatic injury. This article describes the Resiliency Model in relation to the findings of studies on families where a child has sustained a brain injury. Identifying the factors impacting on the family and the adaptation process they experience provides valuable insight and information for the provision of family-centred services.

For the families of children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) the transition from hospital to home, school and community can be a very stressful time for everyone involved. The present phenomenological study explored the experiences and perceptions of parents of children with TBI during this important transition time with the aim to better inform health-workers involved in discharge management and rehabilitation. Six family representatives were interviewed, with the format of interviews being semistructured. An interview guide was used that outlined key issues to be explored with each participant. The primary analytical approach was inductive and thematic content analysis was used. The themes which emerged related to the emotional journey experienced by the family, the impact of significant relationships in the process of adjustment, along with service provision and coping strategies. These themes are highlighted with respect to how they can influence intervention strategies. Implications for service referral and the communication style of health professionals are also addressed.

To date there has been little research concerning the neuropsychological mechanisms of emotion perception deficits following traumatic brain injury (TBI), although such deficits are well documented. This paper considers two major issues. First, are emotion-processing deficits found regardless of the media of presentation? In a recent study examining this issue, adults with severe TBI were found to have particular problems identifying emotions from conversational tone, as well as difficulties when presented with still photographs and audiovisual dynamic displays (videoed vignettes). They were relatively normal when asked to classify emotions on the basis of moving visual displays without sound. This may reflect the fact that the parietal cortices, important for processing movement, are relatively unscathed in TBI. The second issue concerns whether emotion recognition is facilitated by empathic emotional responses and whether these are diminished in people with TBI. Evidence is presented for a relation between subjective reports of diminished emotional experience and emotion recognition accuracy. Finally, preliminary data suggests that people with TBI may fail to have empathic reactions when asked to passively view emotional expressions.