Abstract #0053

Alterations in Brain Functional Connectivity and Global Cerebral Blood Flow in Collegiate Football Athletes over a Single Football Season

David C Zhu¹, Peter Seidenberg², Tim Bream², Alexa Walter², Xiaoxiao Bai², Brian Johnson³, Hans Breiter⁴, Thomas M Talavage⁵, and Semyon Slobounov²

¹Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States, ²Penn State University, University Park, PA, United States, ³Philips Healthcare, ⁴Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, United States, ⁵Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States

There has been growing concern over sports-related brain injuries and their long-term effects. However, the cumulative effect on the brain of sub-concussive hits is still poorly understood. Eighteen male collegiate student football athletes completed multi-modal MRI scans before and after a football season. We found significant changes of functional connectivity to the default-mode network, along with significant increase of cerebral blood flow both globally and at the postcentral gyrus. These changes point to the need for further investigation of the long-term development of brain networks in the presence of sub-concussive hits, and the potential relationship with brain vascular modification.

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