Researchers Find Childhood Issues Can Lead to Cognitive Deficits

The researchers also had a control group of 21 healthy children without brain injuries.

The results of the preliminary study were published in the March 15, 2017, issue of the journal Neurology, and indicated that if information transfer between the children's brain hemispheres took more than 18 milliseconds, the children's chance of recovery from traumatic brain injury, compared to similarly-injured counterparts, was lower.

Emily Dennis, lead author of the study, said, "We found that children who had delayed information transfer times between the two brain hemispheres had widespread regions of white matter disorganization and progressive loss of white matter volume. In children, this disruption to myelin -- the insulation that facilitates information transfer – is compounded because the brain is still maturing. Myelination typically continues beyond age 30."