Association of Auditory Interference and Ocular-Motor Response with Subconcussive Head Impacts in Adolescent Football Players

• Published in: Neurotrauma reports Vol. 5; no. 1; pp. 512 - 521
• Main Authors: Bellini, Zachary S, Recht, Grace O, Zuidema, Taylor R, Kercher, Kyle A, Sweeney, Sage H, Steinfeldt, Jesse A, Kawata, Keisuke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 01.05.2024
• Subjects: ORIGINAL ARTICLE; traumatic brain injury; concussion; ocular-motor; subconcussive head impacts; neuro-ophthalmologic function; King–Devick
• ISSN: 2689-288X; 2689-288X
• DOI: 10.1089/neur.2023.0125

The aim of this study was to examine whether neuro-ophthalmological function, as assessed by the King–Devick test (KDT), alters during a high school football season and to explore the role of auditory interference on the sensitivity of KDT. During the 2021 and 2022 high school football seasons, football players’ neuro-ophthalmological function was assessed at five time points (preseason, three in-season, postseason), whereas control athletes were assessed at preseason and postseason. Two-hundred ten football players and 80 control athletes participated in the study. The year 1 cohort ( n = 94 football, n = 10 control) was tested with a conventional KDT, whereas the year 2 cohort ( n = 116 football, n = 70 control) was tested with KDT while listening to loud traffic sounds to induce auditory interference. There were improvements in KDT during a season among football players, regardless of conventional KDT (preseason 53.4 ± 9.3 vs. postseason 46.4 ± 8.5 sec; β = −1.7, SE = 0.12, p < 0.01) or KDT with auditory interference (preseason 52.3 ± 11.5 vs. postseason 45.1 ± 9.5 sec; β = −1.7, SE = 0.11, p < 0.001). The degree of improvement was similar between the tests, with no significant group-by-time interaction (β = −0.08, SE = 0.17, p = 0.65). The control athletes also improved KDT performance at a similar degree as the football cohorts in both KDT conditions. Our data suggest that KDT performance improves during a season, regardless of auditory interference or head impact exposure. KDT performance was not impacted by a noisy environment, supporting its sideline utility for screening more severe forms of injury.