James S. Mcdonnell Foundation Workshop

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James S. McDonnell Foundation Workshop

ASSESSING THE THEORETICAL, DIAGNOSTIC, AND THERAPEUTIC IMPLICATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE VARIABILITY IN PERSONS WITH BRAIN INJURY

May 15-17, 2006

Skamania Lodge

Agenda

Monday, May 15

5:00 p.m.Welcome and Rationale, Susan Fitzpatrick

5:05 – 5:25 p.m.Overview of TBI and the Potential Utility of Variability Measures, Jam Ghajar

5:25 – 5:45 p.m.Cognitive Variability in TBI – Bottom Up or Top Down or Does it Matter? Don Stuss

5:45 – 6:15 p.m.Group Discussion

6:30 p.m.Reception and Dinner

Tuesday, May 16

(All individual presentations are strictly limited to 15 minutes)

(Participants not specifically assigned as speakers or moderators are discussants)

8:30 – 10:15 a.m.Session 1 --Moderator: Don Stuss

What do we know about individual variability and performance (cognitive, psychological, functional)? How has it been (is) measured? How is increased variability manifested in mild TBI?

Rich Ivry, Intra-individual variability; overview

C. K. Peng, How is variability measured

Minah Suh, Measuring variability in mild TBI

10:15 – 10:30 a.m.Break

10:30 – 12:15 p.m.Session 2 – Moderator: Scott Kelso

What are the neuroanatomical, electrophysiological and behavioral components contributing to intra-individual variability? What is the role of attentional networks? What other systems may be implicated?

Scott Grafton, Neuro-Anatomy of variability control

Bruce McCandliss, Attentional networks

12:30 -- 2:00 p.m.Lunch and Break

2:00 -- 3:30 p.m.Session 3 – Moderator: David Hultsch

Variability – what do we know from aging and other disorders? What are the cognitive, neurological and functional correlates?

Esther Strauss, Cognitive Variability and Aging

Dave Balota, Reaction time distribution – What’s normal? What’s not?

3:30 -- 4:00 p.m.Break

4:00 -- 5:30 p.m.Session 4 – Moderator: Susan Fitzpatrick

Debate: Is variability just noise or is it actively controlled?

Rich Ivry vs Jam Ghajar

(each orator is limited to 20 minutes to state their case)

Questions:

Is variability a parameter actively targeted for reduction or is it an unnoticed byproduct of action?

Is selective attention a mechanism to reduce variability or is it undistractability (the ability to attend to one stimulus rather than another)?

What is the role of anticipation or a feedforward mechanism in selective attention if the above is considered a viable concept?

7:00 p.m.Reception and Dinner

Wednesday, May 17

(All individual presentations are strictly limited to 15 minutes)

(Participants not specifically assigned as speakers or moderators are discussants)

8:30 – 10:15 a.m.Session 5 – Moderator: Steve Flanagan

What is the clinical value of measuring and treating – does understanding variability offer new rehab insights?

Jan Ducheck, Variability and real life performance

McKay Sohlberg, How does TBI impact performance variability and daily life?

John Whyte, Implications for rehabilitation.

10:30 – 12:15 p.m.Moderator: Susan Fitzpatrick

Summary, general discussion of major issues raised and next steps

12:15 p.m.Lunch and adjourn

Updated 12/18/2018