Oct 06, 2015 04:51 PM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

New research suggests that older adults who suffered a mild traumatic brain injury, or concussion, have a more difficult time recovering, Newsmax reported.

Concussions account for 75 percent of all traumatic brain injuries and represent an important public health problem.

"Old age has been recognized as an independent predictor of worse outcome from concussion, but most previous studies were performed on younger adults," David Yen-Ting Chen, lead author of the study, said in a statement.

For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from 26 people. Half of the group was comprised of young adults between the ages 21 and 30, and the other half was older adults aged 51 to 68 years old, HealthDay reported.

Researchers used fMRI to evaluate the effect of age on working memory performance and functional activation in the brain after a mild traumatic brain injury. A follow-up scan was performed six weeks after the first exam. The researchers then analyzed post-concussion symptoms, neuropsychological test results and working memory activity in both groups.

Researchers found that while performing working memory tasks, the young patients with concussion had initial activation that was greater than normal, known as hyperactivation, whereas the older patients had hypoactivation (less than normal).

In comparing the patients in initial and follow-up study, the young patients had significantly reduced post-concussion symptom score at follow-up than at the time of the initial exam, but no significant change of the post-concussion symptom score was observed in the older patients, who also showed persistent hypoactivation.

"Taken together, these findings provide evidence for differential neural plasticity across different ages, with potential prognostic and therapeutic implications," co-author Ying-Chi Tseng from Shuang-Ho Hospital said. "The results suggest that MTBI might cause a more profound and lasting effect in older patients."

The researchers hope that these findings might eventually lead to the development of separate management strategies for different age groups following concussion.

The findings are detailed in the journal Radiology. 

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