The accumulation of subconcussive impacts on cognitive, imaging, and biomarker outcomes in child and college-aged athletes: a systematic review

Examine the effect of subconcussive impact accumulation on cognitive/functional, imaging, and biomarker outcomes over the course of a single season, specifically in contact sport athletes at collegiate level or younger. Systematic review following PRISMA guidelines and using Oxford Center for Eviden...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Brain imaging and behavior 2022-02, Vol.16 (1), p.503-517
Main Authors: Walter, Alexa E., Wilkes, James R., Arnett, Peter A., Miller, Sayers John, Sebastianelli, Wayne, Seidenberg, Peter, Slobounov, Semyon M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accumulation
Adolescent
Athletes
Athletic Injuries - diagnostic imaging
Biomarkers
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Brain Concussion - diagnostic imaging
Change detection
Child
Cognition
Cognitive ability
Concussion
Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Female
Humans
Imaging
Literature reviews
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Neuropsychology
Neuroradiology
Neurosciences
Psychiatry
Review Article
Reviews
Systematic review
Tensors
Young Adult
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Summary:Examine the effect of subconcussive impact accumulation on cognitive/functional, imaging, and biomarker outcomes over the course of a single season, specifically in contact sport athletes at collegiate level or younger. Systematic review following PRISMA guidelines and using Oxford Center for Evidence-Based Medicine 2011 Levels of Evidence and Newcastle Ottawa Assessment Scale. PubMed MEDLINE, PsycInfo, SPORT-Discus, Web of Science. Original research in English that addressed the influence of subconcussive impacts on outcomes of interest with minimum preseason and postseason measurement in current youth, high school, or college-aged contact sport athletes. 796 articles were initially identified, and 48 articles were included in this review. The studies mostly involved male football athletes in high school or college and demonstrated an underrepresentation of female and youth studies. Additionally, operationalization of previous concussion history and concussion among studies was very inconsistent. Major methodological differences existed across studies, with ImPACT and diffusion tensor imaging being the most commonly used modalities. Biomarker studies generally showed negative effects, cognitive/functional studies mostly revealed no effects, and advanced imaging studies showed generally negative findings over the season; however, there was variability in the findings across all types of studies. This systematic review revealed growing literature on this topic, but inconsistent methodology and operationalization across studies makes it challenging to draw concrete conclusions. Overall, cognitive measures alone do not seem to detect changes across this timeframe while imaging and biomarker measures may be more sensitive to changes following subconcussive impacts.
ISSN:1931-7557
1931-7565
DOI:10.1007/s11682-021-00489-6