Effects of severe traumatic brain injury on visual memory.

The study aimed to clarify the effects of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) on visual memory. Three groups of participants (14 late-recovery and 14 early-recovery TBI individuals and 18 controls) were administered the following: The Shum Visual Learning Test (SVLT), a test that measures the ability to remember visual patterns, an electronic maze test, a test that measures the ability to remember spatial positions, and the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), a test of verbal memory and learning. The individuals with TBI (late- and early-recovery) were found to be impaired on the SVLT and the RAVLT but not on the electronic maze. Specifically, on the SVLT, they were found to learn at a slower rate and make more false-positive errors than the controls. The advantages of the SVLT over visual memory tests used in previous studies and the significance of findings of the present study were discussed.