Concussion Effects Linger on Young Athletes

The ability of high school athletes to focus and switch tasks readily amid distractions was compromised for up to two months following concussions, according to a study conducted at the University of Oregon (UO). The findings are based on cognitive exercises used five times over the two months with a pair of sensitive computer-based measuring tools—the attentional network test and the task-switching test.

In the study published online before appearing in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise focus was on the effects of concussions to the frontal region of the brain, which is responsible for working, or short-term memory and executive function, said Li-Shan Chou, Ph.D., professor of human physiology and director of the UO Motion Analysis Laboratory, according to the January 7 press release.

“If a person goes back to the playing field without a full recovery, that person is put into great danger of being re-injured, ” Chou said. “In any given season, if you suffer a concussion, the chances of your suffering a second one are three to six times higher and suffering a third is eight times higher. There are accumulations in this kind of injury. It doesn’t go away easily.”

A big unknown, the researchers said, is just how serious such injuries are for adolescents, whose brains are still developing. It could be the brain can recover more easily, or it could be that such injuries continue to produce deficits that last a lifetime. “We just don’t know, ” Chou said, adding that most previous studies have involved college-aged athletes and older adults.

For this study, researchers assessed, within 72 hours of injury, 20 high school athletes who had suffered a concussion. They assessed the athletes again one week, two weeks, a month and two months later. Investigators matched each of the subjects, whose diagnosis was made by a certified athletic trainer and/or physician, with a healthy control subject of the same sex, body size, age and sport.

“After two months following the concussions, these individuals were still significantly impaired in their executive function, compared to age-matched, activity-matched and gender-matched control populations, ” said co-author Louis Osternig, Ph.D., professor emeritus of human physiology and a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine.

Osternig, who is also a certified athletic trainer, noted that self-reports by the subjects about how they were feeling sometimes were at odds with test results, which continued to show subtle deficits in cognitive functioning. The researchers also noted anecdotal reports from concussed athletes and their parents of declines in academic performance during the two-month period.