Abstract Details

Title The Effect of Repetitive Head Impact Exposure on Response Inhibition in Contact Sport Athletes

Topic Neuro Trauma, Critical Care, and Sports Neurology

Presentation(s) P2 - Poster Session 2 (5:30 PM-6:30 PM)

Poster/Presentation
Number 4-058

Objective The objective of this research was to investigate how cumulative exposure to repetitive head impacts (RHI) in football affects response inhibition.

Background Executive function, including response inhibition, can be transiently impaired following a concussion. Research suggests that exposure to RHIs may also negatively affect brain function.

Design/Methods Thirty-eight contact-sport athletes (19.9 ± 1.4 years) and thirteen non-contact sport athletes (20.4 ± 1.8 years) performed a response inhibition task prior to and following the competitive season. Twenty-four of these contact sport players wore an adhesive accelerometer (XPatch, X2Biosystems) during games. To probe response inhibition, the KINARM object hit-and-avoid was performed in which participants were required to hit targets and avoid distractors moving on a display screen; the number of aborted hits towards a distractor shape were quantified. A 2 (group) x 2 (time) repeated-measures ANOVA was used to examine pre- to post-season changes for both groups on task performance. Pearson correlations were used to examine the relationships between head impact variables and task performance.

Results

Both groups showed overall performance improvements across their seasons, consistent with a learning effect for this novel task (Task Accuracy pre- to post-season: Contact: 88.5% to 89.5%; Non-contact: 86.0% to 90.3%, p=.033). There was no significant interaction between athlete group and time for number of aborted distractor hits (ADH) (p=0.083). There were significant and negative correlations between the number of RHIs: r(25) = – .489, p = .013, cPLA: r(25) = – .489, p = .013, and cPRA: r(25) = – .497, p = .011, and the change in total number of ADHs; for example, players who experienced a higher number of head impacts made fewer ADHs post-season.

Conclusions

The ability to inhibit a motor response remains unaffected in contact sport athletes compared to non-contact sport athletes after RHI exposure. The association between RHI exposure and ADHs warrants further investigation.

Authors/Disclosures
Kelsey Bryk, MSc (University of Delaware) PRESENTER	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
Paul Van Donkelaar	No disclosure on file

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