The influence of repetitive head impacts on motion perception

这项应用的目的将是确定重复头部撞击(RHIS)在动态视力(DVA)期间对运动知觉和动眼反应的持久后果。本项目的具体目标是：(1)考察RHI在单个运动赛季对眼球运动控制的影响；(2)RHIS在单个运动赛季后是否会损害运动知觉？这项拟议的研究与NINDS的使命是一致的，即寻求关于大脑的基础知识，以利用这些知识来减轻神经疾病的负担。假设在单季接触运动的DVA任务中，RHIS的存在将导致平稳的追逐增益、扫视幅度和峰值扫视速度随着视力的丧失而降低。为了验证这些假设，建议的研究将开展一项观察性研究，与非RHIS对照组相比，评估RHIS赛季前、赛季中和赛季后适应性DVA任务中的动眼运动控制和行为，这些任务与运动相关的脑震荡无关。来自RHIS组和对照组的35名运动员将从I组学生运动员足球运动员和非接触性控制人员中招募。如果参与者在单个运动赛季中被诊断出与运动相关的脑震荡，或者如果他们之前有神经疾病，那么他们将被排除在外。根据飞行员的数据，预计随着时间的推移，RHI组的平滑追逐增益和扫视平均/峰值速度将受到损害。据预测，这将导致视觉敏锐度下降和视觉感知任务中的行为表现受损。这个项目是创新的，因为人们对RHIS的后果知之甚少。这一发现将第一次评估RHIS是否改变了运动感觉，以及这种潜在的DVA损失是否是异常眼球运动的结果。此外，这项研究将第一次检查在RHIS存在下SPEM和眼跳的特征。这些新的调查以前没有建立过，应该进一步评估以了解RHIS的风险。

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.