Cognitive correlates of pragmatic language comprehension in adult traumatic brain injury: A systematic review and meta-analyses

Rowley, Dane A.; Rogish, Miles; Alexander, Timothy; Riggs, Kevin J.

Abstract

Effective pragmatic comprehension of language is critical for successful communication and interaction, but this ability is routinely impaired following Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) [1,2]. Individual studies have investigated the cognitive domains associated with impaired pragmatic comprehension, but there remains little understanding of the relative importance of these domains in contributing to pragmatic comprehension impairment following TBI. This paper presents a systematic meta-analytic review of the observed correlations between pragmatic comprehension and cognitive processes following TBI. Five meta-analyses were computed, which quantified the relationship between pragmatic comprehension and five key cognitive constructs (declarative memory; working memory; attention; executive functions; social cognition). Significant moderate-to-strong correlations were found between all cognitive measures and pragmatic comprehension, where declarative memory was the strongest correlate. Thus, our findings indicate that pragmatic comprehension in TBI is associated with an array of domain general cognitive processes, and as such deficits in these cognitive domains may underlie pragmatic comprehension difficulties following TBI. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Citation

Rowley, D. A., Rogish, M., Alexander, T., & Riggs, K. J. (2017). Cognitive correlates of pragmatic language comprehension in adult traumatic brain injury: A systematic review and meta-analyses. Brain Injury, 31(12), 1564-1574. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699052.2017.1341645

• Acceptance Date: Jun 8, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Sep 13, 2017
• Publication Date: Oct 15, 2017
• Deposit Date: Jun 20, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 20, 2017
• Journal: Brain injury
• Print ISSN: 0269-9052
• Electronic ISSN: 1362-301X
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 31
• Issue: 12
• Pages: 1564-1574
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02699052.2017.1341645
• Keywords: Traumatic Brain Injury, Cognition, Pragmatics, Language, Communication
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/452569
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02699052.2017.1341645?journalCode=ibij20
• Additional Information: Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=ibij20