 Background: The clinical presentation of individuals with blast-related brain injury and post-traumatic stress reactions can be markedly similar and thus a clear description of the direct consequences of explosive blast is complicated by the emotional and cognitive sequelae of psychological trauma. The inability to clearly separate the basis of symptoms for the two conditions has hampered clinicians in prescribing effective treatments that return soldiers to maximal functioning. Measures that directly assess neural disruption may be employed to differentiate blast-related brain injury from post-traumatic psychopathology and guide effective intervention.. 