Citation

Walter AE, Scaramuzzo M, Bream T, Seidenberg P, Lynch S, Slobounov SM. J. Concussion 2020; 4: e2059700220983165.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/2059700220983165

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

ContextIn collision sports, particularly American football, athletes can accumulate thousands of subconcussive impacts, or head acceleration events (HAEs), across a single season; however, the short-term consequences of these impacts are not well understood.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effects of the accumulation of impacts during practices on cognitive functions over a single football season.DesignProspective observational study.SettingAthletic training room and University laboratory.ParticipantsTwenty-three NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision players.Main outcome measuresHelmet accelerometers during practices and virtual reality testing (VR; balance, reaction time, spatial memory) before and after the season.

RESULTSPreseason had the majority of ≥80?G impacts while during the season had the majority of ≥25?G to <80?G impacts and positional differences showed that linemen had the majority of both types. Virtual reality analysis revealed that scores significantly decreased after the season for spatial navigation (p?

Language: en

Keywords

accelerometer; football; head acceleration events; Subconcussive impacts; virtual reality