Self- and family ratings of adaptive behavior after traumatic brain injury: Psychometric scores and frontally generated ERPs

Reported hem are self- and family ratings on five scales reflecting planning, initiation, attention/memory, arousal/inhibition, and social monitoring among survivors of traumatic brain injury (TBI). The contingent negative variation, a frontally generated electrophysiological response elicited during a simple attentional task, was strongly predictive of planning and initiation as described in everyday life. Most traditional psychometric measures were relatively poor predictors of adaptive behavior ratings. Results are consistent with hypothesized dissociations in executive functions and they support the growing appreciation that self- and family reports of adaptation in everyday life are essential in evaluating the behavioral sequelae of TBI.