Neurophysiological and cognitive impairment following repeated sports concussion injuries in retired professional rugby league players

Background: Concussion is regarded as a common injury in rugby league, however no studies have explored the long-term neurophysiological and cognitive effects of repeated concussion injuries in this sport. Methods: Former professional rugby athletes (n = 25) were compared to 25 age-matched participa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Brain injury 2018-03, Vol.32 (4), p.498-505
Main Authors: Pearce, Alan J., Rist, Billymo, Fraser, Clare L., Cohen, Adrian, Maller, Jerome J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Athletic Injuries - complications
Brain Concussion - etiology
Case-Control Studies
Cognitive Dysfunction - diagnosis
Cognitive Dysfunction - etiology
concussion
Evoked Potentials, Motor - physiology
Football - injuries
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
mild traumatic brain injury
Motor Activity
motor cortex inhibition
motor execution slowness
Neural Inhibition - physiology
Neuropsychological Tests
Photic Stimulation
Retirement
rugby league
Sport
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
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Summary:Background: Concussion is regarded as a common injury in rugby league, however no studies have explored the long-term neurophysiological and cognitive effects of repeated concussion injuries in this sport. Methods: Former professional rugby athletes (n = 25) were compared to 25 age-matched participants with no history of a concussion. All participants completed standardised motor dexterity, reaction time, and cognitive tasks for working memory, associative learning and rule acquisition and reversal. Single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) acquired motor evoked potentials and cortical silent period (cSP), as well as paired-pulse TMS for short latency intracortical inhibition and long intracortical inhibition (LICI). Results: Compared to controls, dexterity and visuomotor reaction time was slower in the rugby group compared to controls (p = 0.02, p 
ISSN:0269-9052
1362-301X
DOI:10.1080/02699052.2018.1430376