There is growing concern that there may be negative effects on the brain from repetitive head impacts as well as sport-related concussion (SRC). Here, we demonstrate widespread white matter microstructural differences between contact-sport athletes and non-contact sport controls using multi-shell diffusion MRI. Importantly, microstructure differences were present in contact-sport athletes both with and without concussion, suggesting that exposure to multiple head impacts effects brain microstructure. Decreased radial diffusivity (RD) and extra-axonal radial diffusivity (D$$$e,\perp$$$) and increased fractional anisotropy (FA) suggest pathologies such as cytotoxic edema may be present acutely after injury.
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