Abnormal dorsal attention network activation in memory impairment after traumatic brain injury

Memory impairment is a common, disabling effect of traumatic brain injury. In healthy individuals, successful memory encoding is associated with activation of the dorsal attention network as well as suppression of the default mode network. Here, in traumatic brain injury patients we examined whether: (i) impairments in memory encoding are associated with abnormal brain activation in these networks; (ii) whether changes in this brain activity predict subsequent memory retrieval; and (iii) whether abnormal white matter integrity underpinning functional networks is associated with impaired subsequent memory. Thirty-five patients with moderate-severe traumatic brain injury aged 23–65 years (74% males) in the post-acute/chronic phase after injury and 16 healthy control subjects underwent functional MRI during performance of an abstract image memory encoding task. Diffusion tensor imaging was used to assess structural abnormalities across patient groups compared to 28 age-matched healthy controls. Successful memory encoding across all participants was associated with activation of the dorsal attention network, the ventral visual stream and medial temporal lobes. Decreased activation was seen in the default mode network. Patients with preserved episodic memory demonstrated increased activation in areas of the dorsal attention network. Patients with impaired memory showed increased left anterior prefrontal activity. White matter microstructure underpinning connectivity between core nodes of the encoding networks was significantly reduced in patients with memory impairment. Our results show for the first time that patients with impaired episodic memory show abnormal activation of key nodes within the dorsal attention network and regions regulating default mode network activity during encoding. Successful encoding was associated with an opposite direction of signal change between patients with and without memory impairment, suggesting that memory encoding mechanisms could be fundamentally altered in this population. We demonstrate a clear relationship between functional networks activated during encoding and underlying abnormalities within the structural connectome in patients with memory impairment. We suggest that encoding failures in this group are likely due to failed control of goal-directed attentional resources.