Association of acute depressive symptoms and functional connectivity of emotional processing regions following sport-related concussion

Publication date: Available online 9 May 2018 Source:NeuroImage: Clinical Author(s): William T. McCuddy, Lezlie Y. España, Lindsay D. Nelson, Rasmus M. Birn, Andrew R. Mayer, Timothy B. Meier Acute mood disturbance following sport-related concussion is common and is known to adversely affect post-concussion symptoms and recovery. The physiological underpinnings of depressive symptoms following concussion, however, are relatively understudied. We hypothesized that functional connectivity of the emotional processing network would be altered in concussed athletes and associated with the severity of depressive symptoms following concussion. Forty-three concussed collegiate athletes were assessed at approximately one day (N = 34), one week (N = 34), and one month post-concussion (N = 30). Fifty-one healthy contact-sport athletes served as controls and completed a single visit. The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) was used to measure depressive symptoms. Resting state fMRI data was collected on a 3 T scanner (TR = 2 s) and functional connectivity was calculated in a meta-analytically derived network of regions associated with emotional processing. Concussed athletes had elevated depressive symptoms across the first month post-concussion relative to control athletes, but showed partial recovery by one month relative to more acute visits (p's < 0.05). Concussed athletes had significantly different connectivity in regions associated ...
Source: NeuroImage: Clinical - Category: Radiology Source Type: research