Vestibular Dysfunction after Subconcussive Head Impact

• DOI: 10.1089/neu.2015.4238
• Publication Date: 2016-02-17T09:39:17Z
• Authors: Sungjae Hwang; Lei Ma; Keisuke Kawata; Ryan Tierney; John J. Jeka
• Keywords: Head trauma

Current thinking views mild head impact (i.e., subconcussion) as an underrecognized phenomenon that has the ability to cause significant current and future detrimental neurological effects. Repeated impacts head, however, often display no observable behavioral deficits based on standard clinical tests, which may lack sensitivity. The study investigates effects of subconcussive from soccer heading with innovative measures vestibular function walking stability in a pre- 0–2 h, post- 24 h post-heading repeated design. group (n = 10) executed 10 headers balls projected at velocity 25 mph (11.2 m/sec) over min. Subjects were evaluated before, immediately after, after with: modified Balance Error Scoring System (mBESS); task visual feedback trunk movement; galvanic stimulation (GVS) while standing eyes closed foam. A control followed same protocol heading. results showed decrease angle, leg angle gain, center mass gain relative GVS for compared controls. Medial-lateral orientation displacement during treadmill increased Controls improvement mBESS scores time, indicating learning effect, was not observed group. These suggest leads transient dysfunction processing, deters performance.