Concussions are a major cause of injury and disability in Canada. Following concussion, some people develop Functional Cognitive Disorder (FCD), which can make it harder to recover. FCD is  a neuropsychiatric consequence of concussion that is characterized by subjective cognitive problems not explained by objective cognitive deficits or brain injury. For example, people often feel as if their memory is much worse than it was before concussion, when all “objective” tests of memory indicate that it’s normal. FCD remains mysterious as there have been no markers of any differences in brain structure between people who suffer from FCD post-concussion and those who do not.  Yet people who suffer from it experience very real negative effects from it.

Our lab is collaborating on a project investigating post-concussion FCD led by UBC researcher Noah Silverberg, a clinical psychologist with expertise in brain injury and concussion.  In this study, in collaboration with a team led by Siverberg,  we are collecting functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity while people with and without FCD diagnoses watch movies. Our goal is to determine whether  patterns of functional brain network activity predict brain states associated with cognitive/affective processes associated with FCD such as metacognition (the capacity to know what you know) or depression symptoms. By better understanding the neurocognitive process that underlie post-concussion FCD we hope to work towards better diagnosis and treatment of it.