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

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 () versus healthy-control athletes (). We evaluated the relationship between EM performance and post-concussion outcomes. We hypothesized ANTI performance would differ among and due to greater executive control demands, and that EM performance (both tasks) would be associated with clinical outcomes in .

METHODS

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

RESULTS

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