These kinds of changes to brain cells do not result in sufficient change in the tissue density to be detected by conventional imaging techniques. Even if diffuse axonal injury does cause some subtle change in tissue density, the injury is so scattered throughout the brain that there is insufficient focal concentration of injury to yield detection by these procedures. CT and MRI scans are usually employed initially in any degree of head trauma to check for life threatening bleeding or swelling in brain tissue. Post concussion symptoms may be due to either brain injury or soft tissue injury, or both. The syndrome includes headache, dizziness, concentration difficulty, memory failures, irritability, mental dullness, fatigue and weakness, light or sound hypersensitivity, sleep difficulty, depression, and loss of self-confidence.
Brain injury causes structural and functional changes.
Therefore, assessing functional changes in thinking, coordination, language, emotions, and personality provides the key to diagnosing traumatic brain injury. Objective and scientifically created neuropsychological tests are sensitive to these trauma-induced functional changes that usually are not produced by the normal brain. By combining data from a thorough interview and results of neuropsychological and sometimes personality tests, the neuropsychologist creates a functional profile that can be compared to the kinds of profiles usually produced by persons with various kinds of brain injury. Neuropsychologists are clinical psychologists who, through the use of standardized behavioral assessments, seek to understand the complex interactions of psychological and biological components that produce dysfunctional behavior. Some neuropsychological tests are developed to be sensitive to changes caused by brain injury.