Term of Award

Spring 2016

Degree Name

Master of Science in Kinesiology (M.S.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Health and Kinesiology

Committee Chair

Nicholas Murray

Committee Member 1

Barry Munkasy

Committee Member 2

Brandonn Harris

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Oculomotor control dysfunction is present in about 90% of concussed athletes, with anti-saccades being the most prominent. PURPOSE: To investigate anti-saccades, reflexive gaze deviations from a fixed point or area of interest, between NCAA Division I athletes 24 to 48 hours post-concussion (PC) and healthy, matched controls (MC). METHODS: 10 PC (4 female, 6 male; age: 18.9 ± 0.9 years) and 10 MC (4 female, 6 male; age: 18.3 ± 0.6 years) wore a monocular eye tracker (240Hz) while performing 2 trials of the 60-second WiiFit Soccer Heading game. During play, participants were instructed to not deviate their gaze away from the center area of interest. Ocular raw point of gaze coordinates were tracked during play for specific areas of interest (left, right, and center) to determine gaze deviations away from the center area of interest. RESULTS: One-way ANOVAs revealed significantly greater anti-saccades (p = 0.031) in PC (15.2 ± 7.1) when compared to MC (5.4 ± 5.2), significantly greater anti-saccade durations (p = 0.023) in PC (11.2 ± 8.8s) when compared to MC (1.2 ± 1.3 s), and significantly greater average anti-saccade durations (p < .0001) in PC (0.671 ± 0.205s) when compared to MC (0.133 ± 0.042s). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that anti-saccades are significantly more prevalent in PC compared to MC. The great number and duration of anti-saccades could suggest a major deficiency in oculomotor control and could be a candidate marker for concussion.

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

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