Eye movement performance and clinical outcomes among female athletes post-concussion

ABSTRACT

Background

Most post-concussion eye movement (EM) research involves predominantly male samples. We evaluated pro- (PRO; reflexive shift of visual attention to target) and anti- (ANTI; executive control of visual attention away from target) computer-based saccade task performance among female, collegiate athletes with recent concussion (CON) versus healthy-control athletes (HC). We evaluated the relationship between EM performance and post-concussion outcomes. We hypothesized ANTI performance would differ among CON and HC due to greater executive control demands, and that EM performance (both tasks) would be associated with clinical outcomes in CON.

Methods

16 CON (assessed 4–10 days post-injury [M = 6.87, SD = 2.15 days]) and 16 age-matched HC athletes were recruited. General linear mixed modeling and Pearson’s correlations were used.

Results

On ANTI, CON demonstrated higher error rate [F(1,2863) = 12.650, p<.001] and shorter latency on error trials [F(1,469) = 5.976, p=.015] relative to HC. Multiple EM measures were associated with clinical outcomes: PRO duration predicted days to symptom remission (r=.44, p <.05); ANTI error rate was associated with symptom burden on the day of testing (r=.27, p <.05).

Conclusion

This study demonstrates promising utility of EM measures to detect cognitive control and sensorimotor effects of concussion among female athletes and their use as a prognostic indicators of recovery.

KEYWORDS:

• Sports-related concussion
• eye movement
• oculomotor
• saccade

Declaration of Interest Statement

This work was funded by the Eleanor Wood-Prince Grant Initiative: A Project of the Woman’s Board of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the National Institute Of Neurological Disorders And Stroke of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number F31NS106840, and data collection via REDCap was supported in part by a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Award Number UL1TR001422. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Support for Drs. Hans Breiter and James Reilly was also supplied by the Northwestern University Warren Wright Adolescent Center.

Supplementary material

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke [F31NS106840]; National Institutes of Health [UL1TR001422]; Eleanor Wood-Prince Grant Initiative: Women’s Board of Northwestern Memorial Hospital; Warren Wright Adolescent Center.