To investigate the proportion of learning difficulties in UK motorsport competitors and the effect on ImPACT scores at baseline. 

Motorsport competitors have a higher risk of concussion compared to other high-risk sports participants (Deakin et al.). The current worldwide gold standard for management in motorsport is the completion of baseline and post-injury ImPACT, however there has been no formal validation for this population.

This is a retrospective analysis of a prospectively-maintained database cohort, in which demographic and neurocognitive data are archived. The submission includes TOCA competitors aged 14 years and above who completed baseline ImPACT assessments between June 2016-October 2018.

229 drivers completed baseline ImPACT across three racing seasons in six UK-based championships. Drivers had 0-25yrs experience at their current level (1.69 +/- 3.0) and the majority were semi-professional (52.4%). 97% of drivers were male and 89% were right-handed. Drivers had completed 8-20+ years of education (12.17 +/- 2.35) at the time of assessment. Almost a fifth had a formal diagnosis of dyslexia (16.6%). When comparing non-diagnosed to dyslexic drivers there was significantly poorer performance on verbal, visual and visual motor composite scores (t3.2,p < 0.05; t3.6,p<0.001; t4.3,p<0.001; respectively) and non-significant effect on reaction time (t1.4, p>0.05).

This motorsport cohort exhibits a higher prevalence of dyslexia than the general population (16.6% vs. 10%), with dyslexic drivers performing significantly worse at baseline on most composite scores. Future post-injury analyses will indicate whether ImPACT is sensitive to the diagnosis of concussion in this unique sporting group.