文章基本信息

标题：Hypoconnectivity and Hyperfrontality in Retired American Football Players
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作者：Adam Hampshire ; Alex MacDonald ; Adrian M. Owen 等
期刊名称：Scientific Reports
电子版ISSN：2045-2322
出版年度：2013
卷号：3
期号：1
DOI：10.1038/srep02972
语种：English
出版社：Springer Nature
摘要：Recent research has raised concerns about the long-term neurological consequences of repetitive concussive and sub-concussive injuries in professional players of American Football. Despite this interest, the neural and psychological status of retired players remains unknown. Here, we evaluated the performances and brain activation patterns of retired National Football League players (NFL alumni) relative to controls using an fMRI-optimised neuropsychological test of executive function. Behaviourally, the NFL alumni showed only modest performance deficits on the executive task. By contrast, they showed pronounced hyperactivation and hypoconnectivity of the dorsolateral frontal and frontopolar cortices. Critically, abnormal frontal-lobe function was correlated with the number of times that NFL alumni reported having been removed from play after head injury and was evident in individual players. These results support the hypothesis that NFL alumni have a heightened probability of developing executive dysfunction and suggest that fMRI provides the most sensitive biomarker of the underlying neural abnormality.