Institute of Sports Medicine, Department of Exercise and Health, Paderborn University, Warburger Straße 100, Paderborn, 33098, Germany.
Division of Sports Neurology and Neurosciences, Department of Neurology, Mass General Brigham, Boston, MA, USA.
Sci Rep. 2024 Oct 25;14(1):25296. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-74474-6.
Sport-related concussion (SRC) is a complex brain injury. By applying graph-theoretical analysis to networks derived from neuroimaging techniques, studies have shown that despite an overall retention of small-world topology, changes in small-world properties occur after brain injury. Less is known about how exercise during athletes' return to sport (RTS) influences these brain network properties. Therefore, in the present study dense electroencephalography (EEG) datasets were collected pre- and post-moderate aerobic exercise. Small-world properties of whole brain (WB) and the default mode network (DMN) were extracted from the EEG datasets of 21 concussed athletes and 21 healthy matched controls. More specifically, path length (LP), clustering coefficient (CP), and small-world index (SWI) in binary and weighted graphs were calculated in the alpha frequency band (7-13 Hz). Pre-exercise, SRC athletes had higher DMN-CP values compared to controls, while post-exercise SRC athletes had higher WB-LP compared to controls. Weighted WB analysis revealed a significant association between SRC and the absence of small-world topology (SWI ≤ 1) post-exercise. This explorative study provides preliminary evidence that moderate aerobic exercise during athletes' RTS induces an altered network response. Furthermore, this altered response may be related to the clinical characteristics of the SRC athlete.
运动相关性脑震荡（SRC）是一种复杂的脑损伤。通过对源自神经影像学技术的网络应用图论分析，研究表明，尽管整体保留了小世界拓扑结构，但脑损伤后小世界属性会发生变化。对于运动员重返运动（RTS）期间的运动如何影响这些大脑网络属性，人们知之甚少。因此，在本研究中，我们在中度有氧运动前后收集了密集的脑电图（EEG）数据集。从 21 名患有脑震荡的运动员和 21 名健康匹配对照者的 EEG 数据集中提取了全脑（WB）和默认模式网络（DMN）的小世界属性。更具体地说，在 alpha 频带（7-13 Hz）中计算了二进制和加权图中的路径长度（LP）、聚类系数（CP）和小世界指数（SWI）。运动前，SRC 运动员的 DMN-CP 值高于对照组，而运动后，SRC 运动员的 WB-LP 值高于对照组。加权 WB 分析表明，SRC 与运动后小世界拓扑缺失（SWI≤1）之间存在显著关联。这项探索性研究提供了初步证据，表明运动员 RTS 期间的中度有氧运动可引起网络反应的改变。此外，这种改变的反应可能与 SRC 运动员的临床特征有关。
