Abstract #3783

White matter microstructural maturation in adolescent American Football athletes is affected by history of sport-participation and concussion

Yukai Zou^1,2, Ikbeom Jang³, Nicole Vike^2,4, Diana Svaldi¹, Larry Leverenz⁵, Eric Nauman^4,6, Thomas Talavage^1,3, and Joseph Rispoli^1,3

¹Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States, ²College of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States, ³Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States, ⁴Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States, ⁵Department of Health and Kinesiology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States, ⁶Department of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States

Concussion is a biomechanically induced brain injury that causes mental health concern for adolescent collision-sport athletes, whose brains are still developing and maturing. These athletes normally continue participating in collision events, regardless of history of concussion and risk for future concussion. Using diffusion tensor imaging, we investigated 93 asymptomatic adolescent athletes who participate in high school American Football. Per developmental expectations, we typically observed increasing fractional anisotropy or decreasing mean diffusivity with increasing years of high school experience, but prior history of concussion reversed this trend in a number of brain regions.

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