Assessment of Somatosensory and Motor Processing Time in Retired Athletes with a History of Repeated Head Trauma
Date
Authors
Pearce, AJ
King, Doug
Kidgell, DJ
Frazer, AK
Tommerdahl, M
Suter, CM
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
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Journal Title
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Volume Title
Publisher
MDPI AG
Abstract
Measurement of the adverse outcomes of repeated head trauma in athletes is often achieved using tests where the comparator is ‘accuracy’. While it is expected that ex-athletes would perform worse than controls, previous studies have shown inconsistent results. Here we have attempted to address these inconsistencies from a different perspective by quantifying not only accuracy, but also motor response times. Age-matched control subjects who have never experienced head trauma (n = 20; 41.8 ± 14.4 years) where compared to two cohorts of retired contact sport athletes with a history of head trauma/concussions; one with self-reported concerns (n = 36; 45.4 ± 12.6 years), and another with no ongoing concerns (n = 19; 43.1 ± 13.5 years). Participants performed cognitive (Cogstate) and somatosensory (Cortical Metrics) testing with accuracy and motor times recorded. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) investigated corticospinal conduction and excitability. Results showed that there was little difference between groups in accuracy scores. Conversely, motor times in all but one test revealed that ex-athletes with self-reported concerns were significantly slower compared to other groups (p ranges 0.031 to <0.001). TMS latency showed significantly increased time (p = 0.008) in the group with ongoing concerns. These findings suggest that incorporating motor times is more informative than considering accuracy scores alone.Description
Keywords
cognition, concussion, motor, motor evoked potentials, response speed, sensorimotor, 42 Health Sciences, 4207 Sports Science and Exercise, Traumatic Head and Spine Injury, Physical Injury - Accidents and Adverse Effects, Behavioral and Social Science, Clinical Research, Neurosciences, Neurological, 3209 Neurosciences, 4201 Allied health and rehabilitation science, 4207 Sports science and exercise
Source
Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, ISSN: 2411-5142 (Print); 2411-5142 (Online), MDPI AG, 7(4), 109-. doi: 10.3390/jfmk7040109
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© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).