Event related potential changes in a two-stimulus auditory oddball task in concussed college athletes: A linguistic component

Return to Play decisions are done based on cognitive-communicative testing and clinical assessments; concussed athletes may benefit from electrophysiological testing for a more accurate representation of their recovery. The purpose of this study is to investigate the electrophysiological performance post-concussion analyzing the attentional differences using the traditional oddball paradigm with a CV linguistic component. Participants for this study were 6 male college athletes with a history of concussion and 10 participants with no history of concussion (controls). Athletes were evaluated using event-related potentials (ERPs) that were recorded during a consonant-vowel (CV) auditory oddball task. Both the P300a and P300b components were analyzed at the CPz, Cz, Pz and FCz central electrode sites. We hypothesized a significant difference in attentional ERP components of concussed individuals; the hypothesis was supported. There was a statistically significant difference between controls and concussed P300a latency at FCz. A statistically significant amplitude difference was also found at CPz between target stimuli detection vs. non-target stimuli detection in controls; no statistically significant difference was found for concussed athletes. Clinical Implications: Further research is necessary to clarify electrophysiological patterns post-concussion before implementation of ERP use in the clinical setting with individual participants