Sensitivity of the WAIS-R verbal performance IQ difference and intersubtest scatter to traumatic brain injury

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) Verbal IQ-Performance IQ (VIQ-PIQ) discrepancy and a number of indices of intersubtest scatter were examined in 25 subjects with a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and magnetic resonance imagining (MRI) evidence of structural brain abnormality. Abnormal VIQ-PIQ differences and scatter index values were identified by referring to published normal base rates. Only 16% of the subjects were identifed as abnormal on any one of these WAIS-R measures, which suggests these measures are largely insensitive to the presence of structural brain abnormality in TBI.