School of Medicine study finds concussions in youth athletes’ brains

Pitt’s School of Medicine concluded a five-year study on concussions, confirming that… Pitt’s School of Medicine concluded a five-year study on concussions, confirming that recovery from the injury has a direct correlation to changes in brain function of young athletes.

But because the game is often an athlete’s foremost priority, concussions are often overlooked.

“The tricky issues with sports concussions are these: The symptoms are not always definite and the decision to allow the player to return to the game is not always straightforward,” said Mark Lovell, director of the UPMC Center for Sports Medicine Concussion Program.

The study found that abnormal brain activity in children and adolescents has an effect on their performance on neuropsychological tests relating to attention and memory and on the occurrence of symptoms such as headaches.

These results bolster other data obtained from neuropsychological tests that help athletic trainers make better decisions concerning concussion treatment and when to allow young athletes to return to playing, Lovell said.

The 28 concussed high school athletes and 13 age-matched controls participating in the study had a functional MRI evaluation within a week of their injuries and again when their conditions allowed for clinical recovery. While researchers observed and recorded the brain’s activity, the athletes completed working memory tasks.

The study concluded that athletes with the greatest degree of hyper-activation at the time of their first MRI required a more lengthy clinical recovery.

It is recommended that concussed athletes not return to play until they have been thoroughly evaluated by a physician and undergone neuropsychological testing. This is especially important for athletes 18 and younger because their brains are still developing.

The study’s results were published in Neurosurgery, the journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, in August.

-Liz Williamson, staff writer