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Physiological arousal in athletes following repeated subconcussive impact exposure

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between a novel measure of subconcussive impact exposure (SIE) in sports and physiological arousal. In particular, baseline arousal was examined as a potential mechanism of impairment. This research was conducted in the Jack and Nora Walker Lifespan Development Centre testing facilities at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Using a two-part longitudinal design, 77 university students (M age = 21.01, SD = 2.752, 40.3% male) of varying athletic status (25 high-risk, 28 low-risk, and 24 non-athletes) were tested individually at pre- and post-season. Electrodermal activation (EDA) was measured as an index of physiological arousal. Participants completed the Everyday Living Demographic Questionnaire (ELQ), from which a composite index of SIE was created consisting of athletic history questions. SIE significantly predicted pre- and post-season EDA. Additionally, high-risk and low-risk athletes had greater SIE than non-athletes, while low-risk and high-risk athletes did not differ in terms of SIE. These results are consistent with research demonstrating reduced physiological arousal after concussion, further illustrating the continuum of head injury severity, and indicating that EDA may be a non-invasive biomarker of SIE.

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Notes

  1. Linear regression analyses for Hypothesis 2 were conducted excluding the two outliers with SIE scores greater than two standard deviations above the mean. These analyses produced similar statistical results, F(1, 72) = 4.544, p < .05, b = −.025).

  2. Linear regression analyses for Hypothesis 3 were conducted excluding the two outliers with SIE scores greater than two standard deviations above the mean. These analyses produced similar statistical results, F(1, 57) = 6.256, p < .05.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Brock University, Mackenzie Chown B326, 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way, St. Catharines, ON, L2S 3A1, Canada

    Caitlyn Gallant, Nicole Barry & Dawn Good

  2. Centre for Neuroscience, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, L2S 3A1, Canada

    Dawn Good

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  1. Caitlyn Gallant
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Contributions

Nicole Barry participated in data acquisition, while all listed authors (Caitlyn Gallant, Nicole Barry, and Dr. Dawn Good) have participated in the conception and design of the study, the analysis and interpretation of the data, the writing of the manuscript, and the revision/approval of the version of the manuscript to be published.

Caitlyn Gallant held funding from the Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology (QEII-GSST) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Frederik Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship during the preparation of this research, and Nicole Barry held funding from Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) during the collection and preparation of this research. Dr. Dawn Good is affiliated with the Ontario Brain Injury Association.

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Correspondence to Caitlyn Gallant.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Conflict of Interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Gallant, C., Barry, N. & Good, D. Physiological arousal in athletes following repeated subconcussive impact exposure. Curr Psychol 39, 640–647 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-9780-3

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