The objective of this application will be to determine the lasting consequences of repetitive head impacts (RHIs) on motion perception and oculomotor response during dynamic visual acuity (DVA).
The specific aims of this project are to (1) examine the effect of RHI on oculomotor control over a single athletic season and (2) does RHIs impair motion perception after a single athletic season? The proposed research is consistent with NINDS?s mission to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease. It is hypothesized the presence of RHIs will result in smooth pursuit gain, saccadic magnitude and peak saccadic velocity decreases along with a loss of visual acuity during the DVA tasks over the single season of contact sports. To test these hypotheses, the proposed research will institute a observational study that involves assessing oculomotor control and behavior on adaptive DVA tasks from pre-, mid-, and post-season of a single season of RHIs, that are independent of a sport-related concussion, as compared to non-RHIs controls. Thirty-five athletes from both the RHIs and control group will be recruited from Division I student-athlete football players and non-contact controls. Participants will be excluded if they have a diagnosed sport-related concussion during the single athletic season or if they have a prior existing neurological condition. Based on the pilot data, it is expected to see impaired smooth pursuit gain and saccadic mean/peak velocity in the RHI group over time. It is predicted this will lead to visual acuity loss and impaired behavioral performance in visual perception tasks. This project is innovative as little is known regarding the consequence of RHIs. The findings will be the first to assess if motion perception is altered as a result of RHIs and whether this potential DVA loss is a result of abnormal eye movements. In addition, this study will be the first to examine the characteristics of SPEMs and saccades in the presence of RHIs. These novel investigations have not been previously established and should be further evaluated to understand the risk of RHIs.
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