Investigating the cognitive effects of having previously sustained a sports related concussion

Objective: Concussion is common among rugby players, due to high volumes of hard, physical contact that occur throughout the sport. Official “return to play” protocols are in place after sustaining a concussion, but are these strict enough to minimise their medium-long term effects? In this pre-registered study, student rugby players who had previously sustained an on-pitch concussion were compared to student players without a history of concussion on a range of cognitive measures.Hypotheses: It was predicted that there would be an effect of concussion history on three cognitive measures relating to working memory,inhibitory control and attention.Design: Between subjects design: The IV was concussion history (no history of concussion; previous history of concussion).The DVs were Reading Span score, Digit Symbol Substitution Test score and Simon Task reaction times.Methods: 30 male members of local sports teams (n=15 per group) recruited through convenience sampling.Results: Results showed a significant effect of concussion history on reading span scores (p <.001) and DSST scores (p<.001).There were no significant differences between groups on the Simon Task.Conclusions: Despite following strict “return to play” protocols, previously concussed players showed poorer working memory and attention performance than those with no concussion history