Differential Change in Oculomotor Performance among Female Collegiate Soccer Players versus Non-Contact Athletes from Pre-To Post-Season

Virginia T. Gallagher*, Prianka Murthy, Jane Stocks, Brian Vesci, Danielle Colegrove, Jeffrey Mjaanes, Yufen Chen, Hans Breiter, Cynthia Labella, Amy A. Herrold, James L. Reilly

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Sensitive and reliable tools are needed to evaluate potential behavioral and cognitive changes following head impact exposure in contact and collision sport participation. We evaluated change in oculomotor testing performance among female, varsity, collegiate athletes following variable exposure to head impacts across a season. Female, collegiate, contact sport (soccer, CONT) and non-contact sport (NON-CONT) athletes were assessed pre-season and post-season. Soccer athletes were grouped according to total season game headers into low dose (≤40 headers; CONT-Low Dose) or high dose (>40 headers; CONT-High Dose) groups. Performance on pro-saccade (reflexive visual response), anti-saccade (executive inhibition), and memory-guided saccade (MGS, spatial working memory) computer-based laboratory tasks were assessed. Primary saccade measures included latency/reaction time, inhibition error rate (anti-saccade only), and spatial accuracy (MGS only). NON-CONT (n = 20), CONT-Low Dose (n = 17), and CONT-High Dose (n = 7) groups significantly differed on pre-season versus post-season latency on tasks with executive functioning demands (anti-saccade and MGS, p ≤ 0.001). Specifically, NON-CONT and CONT-Low Dose demonstrated shorter (i.e., faster) anti-saccade (1.84% and 2.68%, respectively) and MGS (5.74% and 2.76%, respectively) latencies from pre-season to post-season, whereas CONT-High Dose showed 1.40% average longer anti-saccade, and 0.74% shorter MGS, latencies. NON-CONT and CONT-Low Dose demonstrated reduced (i.e., improved) inhibition error rate on the anti-saccade task at post-season versus pre-season, whereas CONT-High Dose demonstrated relative stability (p = 0.021). The results of this study suggest differential exposure to subconcussive head impacts in collegiate female athletes is associated with differential change in reaction time and inhibitory control performances on executive saccadic oculomotor testing.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)169-180
Number of pages12
JournalNeurotrauma Reports
Volume1
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 1 2020

Funding

This work was funded by the Eleanor Wood-Prince Grant Initiative: A Project of the Woman's Board of Northwestern Memorial Hospital (to A.A.H. and J.L.R.) and supported by the National Institute Of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health under award number F31NS106840 (to V.T.G.).

Keywords

  • oculomotor
  • repetitive head impacts
  • saccade testing
  • soccer subconcussion

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Developmental Neuroscience
  • Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

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