Cognitive and Salience Network Connectivity Changes following a Single Season of Repetitive Head Impact Exposure in High School Football.

ABSTRACT:

Background and purpose

During a season of high school football, adolescents with actively developing brains experience a considerable number of head impacts. Our aim was to determine whether repetitive head impacts in the absence of a clinically diagnosed concussion during a season of high school football produce changes in cognitive performance or functional connectivity of the salience network and its central hub, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex.

Materials and methods

Football players were instrumented with the Head Impact Telemetry System during all practices and games, and the helmet sensor data were used to compute a risk-weighted exposure metric (RWEcp), accounting for the cumulative risk during the season. Participants underwent MRI and a cognitive battery (ImPAC

SUBMITTER: Kawas MI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11383397 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature