Impairment of olfactory naming, recognition, and memory following closed head injury

Fifty-two nonanosmic closed head injured patients were given tests of olfactory naming, recognition, and memory utilizing 'scratch and sniff' labels. One third of the patients tested obtained scores on the olfactory naming and recognition subtests which were below the lowest scores obtained by a group of age matched controls (n=19). Performance on olfactory naming, recognition, and memory was found to be related to the severity of the injury as indexed by Glasgow Coma Scale scores, duration of impaired consciousness, and length of posttraumatic amnesia. Patients with moderate or severe injuries were impaired with respect to controls whereas patients with mild injuries did not differ from controls. Patients with focal mass lesions in the frontal and/or temporal regions performed more poorly than patients with diffuse injuries and control subjects as were closed head injured subjects with focal mass lesions confined to the right hemisphere. Patients tested at least six months post injury obtained higher recognition scores than comparably injured patients tested within six months of injury.Psychology, Department o