Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Introduction. Concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury that can result in significant social, emotional and cognitive consequences. Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of concussion due to developmental factors that may alter their response to injury. Although research in the field of concussion has increased, no objective tool is available to diagnose concussion and measure the severity of injury sustained. Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) is a promising method that measures spontaneous activity amongst brain regions when an individual is not performing an explicit task. Recent research suggests that rs-fMRI may be used to indicate injury severity in concussed adults; however, the utility and value of this method in the paediatric population has not been explored. Objective: to use rs-fMRI to assess functional neural connectivity in the sub-acute phase of concussive injury in a paediatric population. Methods. Participants will be children aged 8-15 years, that have recently sustained a concussion, an orthopaedic injury, or are otherwise healthy, that will be recruited from Alberta's Children Hospital (ACH). Functional connectivity data will be collected 1-week post-injury using the MRI machine located at ACH. Significance. The research will help determine whether rs-fMRI can be used to objectively differentiate between concussion, orthopaedic injury, and otherwise healthy children and will elucidate the utility of rs-fMRI in identifying potential imaging biomarkers that could be useful in clinical practice to improve diagnosis and prognosis of concussion in the paediatric population.