Enduring neuroimaging controversies exist in the study of traumatic brain injury (TBI) especially related to mild TBI (mTBI). The presentation begins with a brief historical overview of various definitional statements as to what constitutes a TBI, especially involving the “concussion” term. Differences in neuroimaging studies often begin with different inclusion criteria based on what definition is used. Various lesion quantification methods involving traditional neuroimaging abnormalities of TBI have become standard, but when the best timeframe is post-injury to scan and what to quantify remain part of the debate. Individual differences and the heterogeneity of the injury itself complicate any neuroimaging analysis because abnormalities may not overlap, leading to group analyses masking effects at the individual level. With advanced neuroimaging techniques, such as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) or functional MRI (fMRI) controversies abound as to acquisition, post-processing and study design questions. Many neuroimaging studies attempt to relate a particular neuroimaging variable to outcome, but there is a lack in uniformity of universally accepted outcome metrics. This is especially true when studying neurobehavioral and neurocognitive outcome. As advanced neuroimaging methods move into multimodal studies, network analyses and ‘Big Data’, how best to accomplish the integration of these analyses remains part of the debate. While controversies remain over image analysis techniques, neuroimaging has greatly advanced our understanding of how trauma alters brain structure and function. Potential solutions involving image analysis techniques will be discussed.

Acknowledgements

No acknowledgement found.

References

No reference found.