Sport Related Concussions Flashcards
concussion
a sport related concussion is damage that occurs to the brain’s neural and glial networks that happens from a force translated to the body, mild traumatic brain injury (TBI)
frequency of concussions between men and women sports
Men’s football has the most concussions
Women’s soccer and basketball have second and third most
This could be because physiological differences or women might suggest they might have a concussion more than men
Rugby has more concussions than American football
Boxing has high concussion rates, but horse racing (jumping & amateur) have higher rates
mechanisms of getting a concussion
- Linear (translational) acceleration
- Rotational (angular) acceleration
- Impact deceleration
- Impact deceleration secondary to the head striking an opposing player’s body
coup and contre-coup
Coup: primary brain impact injury
Contre-coup: occurs on the side opposite of the area of impact when the brain bounces back and becomes injured again
function of frontal and temporal lobe
Frontal lobe: executive and high-level cognitive function
Temporal lobe: memory and language function
neurometabolic cascade
concussion causes a leak of potassium into the extracellular fluid
body tries to maintain homeostasis by pumping back potassium into the neuron
uses lots of ATP -> glucose
cerebral blood flow allows nutrients to be delivered, but blood flow decreased
high demand of nutrients + low cerebral blood flow = lactate
low cerebral blood flow + production of lactate = lactate build up
sport concussion assessment tool (SCAT-5)
- state months in reverse
- memory recall task
- reverse number recall task
- balance task (i.e. single leg stance)
chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)
- advanced CTE has brain a trophy
- ventricles are enlarged in the brain with advanced CTE which stores cerebral spinal fluid
Symptoms:
Progressive decline of memory and cognition, depression, suicidal behavior, poor impulse control, aggressiveness, parkinsonism, (eventually) dementia , motor neuron disease (similar to ALS)
how could CTE be caused by?
- Repetitive brain trauma that occurs with or without symptomatic concussion
- Athletes in contact sports such as football may experience sub-concussive impacts on the order of 1400 per season.
- Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) results from a force transmitted to the head that leads to a collision between the brain and skull or to a strain on the tissue and vasculature of the brain
- Recent research has shown a strong link between concussion and CTE
characteristic features of CTE
- damage to brain’s glial and neural networks that occurs around blood vessels deep within brain
how do you determine if someone has been concussed?
generally assessments are trail making tasks from 1 to x or a figure task to accurately depict a drawing and concussed athletes aren’t that impaired with these tasks
- simple behavioural task with a neurophysiological measurement of a concussion
- electroencephalography which detects brain activity, event related potentials (ERP) that measure cognition
1. ERPs are averaged electrical brain responses to time-locked stimuli
2. N2pc = event-related brain potential component related to the focusing of visuospatial attention (ability to use attention to regulate visual space)
3. P300 = measure of stimulus classification processing speed (measure of executive function) ability to make a good decision of what you should or shouldn’t do
SCAT-5 vs N2pc vs P300
3 groups – multiple, single and a no concussion group of football players that had 9 months since their last concussion
SCAT-5: test showed no differences
N2pc: the average event-related brain potential amplitudes showed no differences
P300: the average event-related brain potential amplitudes showed differences
multiple-concussed group had lowest avg amplitude
non-concussed group had highest
