Wilkerson Gary B, Fleming Lexi R, Adams Victoria P, Petty Richard J, Carlson Lynette M, Hogg Jennifer A, Acocello Shellie N
Department of Health & Human Performance, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN 37403, USA.
Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, TN 37752, USA.
Brain Sci. 2024 Jan 10;14(1):68. doi: 10.3390/brainsci14010068.
Concussion may affect sport performance capabilities related to the visual perception of environmental events, rapid decision-making, and the generation of effective movement responses. Immersive virtual reality (VR) offers a means to quantify, and potentially enhance, the speed, accuracy, and consistency of responses generated by integrated neural processes. A cohort of 24 NCAA Division I male wrestlers completed VR assessments before and after a 3-week VR training program designed to improve their perceptual-motor performance. Prior to training, the intra-individual variability (IIV) among 40 successive task trials for perceptual latency (i.e., time elapsed between visual stimulus presentation and the initiation of movement response) demonstrated strong discrimination between 10 wrestlers who self-reported a history of concussion from 14 wrestlers who denied ever having sustained a concussion (Area Under Curve ≥ 0.750 for neck, arm, and step movements). Natural log transformation improved the distribution normality of the IIV values for both perceptual latency and response time (i.e., time elapsed between visual stimulus presentation and the completion of movement response). The repeated measures ANOVA results demonstrated statistically significant ( < 0.05) pre- and post-training differences between groups for the IIV in perceptual latency and the IIV in response time for neck, arm, and step movements. Five of the six IIV metrics demonstrated a statistically significant magnitude of change for both groups, with large effect sizes. We conclude that a VR assessment can detect impairments in perceptual-motor performance among college wrestlers with a history of concussion. Although significant post-training group differences were evident, VR training can yield significant performance improvements in both groups.
脑震荡可能会影响与环境事件视觉感知、快速决策以及有效运动反应生成相关的运动表现能力。沉浸式虚拟现实（VR）提供了一种手段，可量化并潜在地提高由整合神经过程产生的反应的速度、准确性和一致性。一组24名美国全国大学体育协会（NCAA）一级男子摔跤运动员在为期3周的VR训练计划前后完成了VR评估，该训练计划旨在提高他们的感知运动表现。在训练前，对40次连续任务试验中的感知潜伏期（即视觉刺激呈现与运动反应开始之间经过的时间）的个体内变异性（IIV）进行分析，结果显示，在10名自我报告有脑震荡史的摔跤运动员和14名否认曾遭受脑震荡的摔跤运动员之间有明显区分（颈部、手臂和步行动作的曲线下面积≥0.750）。自然对数转换改善了感知潜伏期和反应时间（即视觉刺激呈现与运动反应完成之间经过的时间）的IIV值的分布正态性。重复测量方差分析结果表明，两组在训练前和训练后，颈部、手臂和步行动作的感知潜伏期IIV以及反应时间IIV存在统计学上的显著差异（<0.05）。六个IIV指标中的五个在两组中均显示出具有统计学意义的变化幅度，且效应量较大。我们得出结论，VR评估可以检测出有脑震荡史的大学摔跤运动员在感知运动表现方面的损伤。虽然训练后两组之间的差异很明显，但VR训练可以使两组的表现都有显著提高。
