Key result
Retired NFL players showed pronounced hyperactivation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and frontoparietal hypoconnectivity during an executive function task compared to healthy controls.
Why the study?
Do retired professional American football players exhibit altered brain activation patterns and executive function compared to controls?
Cross-Sectional (n=33)
No
Do retired professional American football players exhibit altered brain activation patterns and executive function compared to controls?
Retired NFL players exhibit abnormal frontal-lobe function and connectivity on fMRI during executive tasks, which correlates with their history of head injuries.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Hypothesis-generating for executive dysfunction risk in retired athletes; prospective studies needed before clinical relevance.
Recent research has raised concerns about the long-term neurological consequences of repetitive concussive and sub-concussive injuries in professional players of American Football. Despite this interest, the neural and psychological status of retired players remains unknown. Here, we evaluated the performances and brain activation patterns of retired National Football League players (NFL alumni) relative to controls using an fMRI-optimised neuropsychological test of executive function. Behaviourally, the NFL alumni showed only modest performance deficits on the executive task. By contrast, they showed pronounced hyperactivation and hypoconnectivity of the dorsolateral frontal and frontopolar cortices. Critically, abnormal frontal-lobe function was correlated with the number of times that NFL alumni reported having been removed from play after head injury and was evident in individual players. These results support the hypothesis that NFL alumni have a heightened probability of developing executive dysfunction and suggest that fMRI provides the most sensitive biomarker of the underlying neural abnormality.
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Hampshire et al. (2013) conducted a cross-sectional in Repetitive mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) (n=33). Professional American football career (repetitive mTBI) vs. Healthy age-matched controls was evaluated on Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activation during the Spatial Planning task (F=8.72, p=0.004). Retired NFL players showed pronounced hyperactivation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and frontoparietal hypoconnectivity during an executive function task compared to healthy controls.
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