Abstract #3045

What happens to the brain over a single season of playing high school rugby: structural and white matter fibre tract changes related to impact

Maryam Tayebi^1,2, Eryn Kwon^1,2, William Schierding³, Joshua McGeown², Matthew McDonald^2,4, Paul Condron², Leigh Potter², Miao Qiao⁵, Jerome Maller⁶, Samantha Holdsworth^2,7, Justin Fernandez¹, Alan Wang¹, and Vickie Shim^1,2

¹Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, ²Mātai Medical Research Institute, Gisborne, New Zealand, ³Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, ⁴Department of Ophthalmology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, ⁵School of Computer Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, ⁶General Electric Healthcare, Victoria, Australia, ⁷Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences & Centre for Brain Research, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

Synopsis

We conducted a multimodal MRI study on high school rugby players with bespoke kinematic mouthguard sensors to investigate the correlation between the cumulative effects of subconcussive head impact exposure and any change in the structure of the brain. Despite being underpowered, the study found that the volume of the corpus callosum changed the most over a season of rugby (PCA); Axial Diffusivity of the UF and ILF tracts negatively correlated with the cumulative impact sustained by the athletes. Further investigation of the cumulative effect of playing high-contact sports over an extended period is required, especially for children with developing brains.

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