Study: Concussions Slow Brain Activity Among High School Football Players

A study done by Wake Forest University School of Medicine personnel discovered that concussions among high school football students affected an important brain signal.

As lead author Kevin C. Yu stated at the Radiological Society of North America’s annual meeting, most concussion studies focus on rhythmic brain signals that dictate sensory movements and attention. Meanwhile, common concussion symptoms include loss of balance, abnormal body movement, and difficulty in concentration.

However, their study focused on aperiodic brain signals that affect neurons, vital in cognitive functions like learning, sleep, and decision-making. The nine authors gathered pre- and post-season resting-state magnetoencephalography (MEG) data from 91 high school football players.

MEG is a neuroimaging technique that measures the magnetic field produced by the brain’s electrical cycles. The results were then tried under the Post-Concussive Symptom Inventory. This evaluation tool correlates cognitive, physical, and behavioral symptoms before and after their season.

The authors discovered that ten of the high school players were diagnosed with a concussion, as they displayed slow aperiodic activity through impaired memory and concentration. The research group hopes their findings will help high school football teams better monitor concussion symptoms.

Likewise, the doctors from Wake Forest advised players who absorbed hits to their heads to go through the entire recovery process before returning to action. Indirectly, the study also calls for safer procedures in football, given that it’s still a highly physical and dangerous sport.

In addition to Yu, Christopher T. Whitlow, M.D., Enterprise Chair of Radiology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, lent his expertise as senior author. Elizabeth M. Davenport, Laura A. Flashman, Jillian Urban, Srikantam S. Nagarajan, Kiran Solingapuram Sai, Joel Stitzel, and Joseph A. Maldjian also contributed to the study.

Grants from the National Institutes of Health and Canadian Institutes of Health Research made this study about concussions on high school football players possible.