Mild head injury and speed of information processing: A prospective study of professional rugby league players

Abstract

The sensitivity of several short tests of speed of information processing to the effects of mild head injury in rugby league football was investigated. The measures used were the Symbol Digit Modalities Test, the Digit Symbol Substitution Test, and the Speed of Comprehension Test. Two studies were conducted, the first to examine the effect of practice, the second to determine sensitivity to cognitive impairment immediately following injury. The first study established alternate form equivalence and demonstrated that performance on the Speed of Comprehension and Digit Symbol Substitution tests improved with practice, whereas the Symbol Digit Modalities test remained stable. A second study of 10 players who subsequently sustained mild head injuries showed that measures of speed of information processing were sensitive to impairment in the postacute phase, whereas an untimed task of word recognition (Spot-the-Word) was not. Speed of Comprehension was more sensitive to postinjury impairment than either the Digit Symbol Substitution or Symbol Digit Modalities tests. A repeated baseline assessment before injury using the higher score to reflect a player's potential, allowed measurement of impaired performance on sensitive tests.

Patterns of Early Emotional and Neuropsychological Sequelae after Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

“…Findings for slowed processing speed and memory are consistent with previous research of acute impairments after non-sport mTBI 9,12,[14][15][16][17] and sports-related concussions. [19][20][21][22][23]25,26,[60][61][62] Impairments in episodic memory and processing speed have been reported in prospective studies that used eligibility criteria similar to the present study, including GCS 13-15 and normal CT scans when available. 15 Our findings confirm these as among the most important cognitive domains to assess after injury from a clinical perspective.…”

“…In a study of 10 professional rugby players and 10 matched uninjured athletes, Hinton-Bayre and associates 19 found that at 24-48 h post-injury, concussed athletes demonstrated significant dysfunction on the Symbol-Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), Speed of Comprehension, and Digit Span. In a somewhat larger follow-up study, Hinton-Bayre and colleagues 20 essentially replicated their previous findings, but also found that while most players (80%) were impaired 1-3 days post-injury, some players (35%) did not return to baseline performance until 3-5 weeks post-injury.…”

Age-Related Differences in Neuropsychological Testing Among High School Athletes

“…11,19,20 These instruments included the Standardized Assessment of Concussion, Trail Making Test Part A, Trail Making Test Part B, digit span, Symbol Digit Modalities Test, Hopkins Verbal Learning Test, finger tapping test, and a self-report symptom checklist (Head Injury Scale; Table 1). [21][22][23][24][25][26] All tests were administered in the same order to decrease test effects during neuropsychological assessment. Although numerous assessment batteries are available, we chose this traditional pencil-and-paper neuropsychological test battery due to its extensive use in research and age appropriateness of tests.…”

Comprehension of familiar and unfamiliar native accents under adverse listening conditions.

“…SCOLP is originally a written test that provides a measure of the slowing down of cognitive processing following mild head injury (Hinton-Bayre et al 1997). In SCOLP, the participant verifies as many sentences as possible in two minutes.…”