Grant: Project Grant

The annual prevalence of sports concussion has reached epidemic proportions, making any long-term consequence of the injury sizeable in both human and economic terms. Important questions regarding susceptibility and resistance to the long term effects of sports concussion and precisely what they are and how they evolve atop the dynamic substrate of the brain abound. Any discussion of these downstream consequences inevitably leads to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the neurodegenerative disease that is widely believed to be the signature pathology of injuries involving recurrent blows to the head occurring during the practice of contact sports. However, from a scientific standpoint, there are several important gaps in what is known about CTE, making causal links premature to say the least. Typically, when a new disease/pathology is discovered, the natural progression is to move toward prospective research designs where covariates are accounted for. The current research program proposes a longitudinal investigation aiming to assess the predictive value of in vivo markers of neurodegeneration in the rate of progression and specificity of cognitive/behavioral decline in remotely concussed former athletes. This proposal aims to establish the distinctive neuropathology underlying abnormal cognitive functioning in remotely concussed former athletes. Knowing about the signature pathology of the long term effects of concussion will ultimately help us design optimal treatment and prevention strategies aiming to maintain/restore the quality of life of millions of former athletes with a history of remote concussions.