Emerging evidence from recent studies using laboratory and
naturalistic attention tasks suggests that individuals with traumatic
brain injury (TBI) may have a deficit mainly in strategic control of
attention. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that inattentive
behavior after TBI could be predicted by performance on psychometric
measures of executive function. A group of 37 individuals with moderate to
severe TBI were assessed with previously validated naturalistic measures
of attention. A battery of neuropsychological tests was also administered
to assess various aspects of executive function. Seven measures of
executive function and 10 variables reflecting inattentive behavior were
combined to form 1 executive and 3 inattentive behavior (IB) composite
scores. Three predictors (executive composite, current disability scores,
and age) were associated, at the univariate level, with one of the IB
composites reflecting frequency and duration of off-task episodes. A
stepwise multiple regression procedure indicated that the executive
composite was the only significant predictor of the IB composite.
Additional post-hoc regression analyses suggested that the
relationship was not likely to be mediated by processing speed. The
current study supports the hypothesis that executive function, measured by
commonly used neuropsychological tests, significantly predicts certain
aspects of inattentive behavior in real-world tasks after TBI.
(JINS, 2005, 11, 434–445.)