Enrollment

Under protocol approval from the Michigan State University Human Research Protection Program, all 60 participants were recruited consented from a student research participation pool from the University’s College of Communication Arts and Sciences. Potential participants were selected for further screening based on survey responses to determine their eligibility for inclusion in this study. The 30 participants with SRC histories (aged 19-22 years) were current or former athletes at the senior high school or collegiate level, with English as their first language, and a negative self-reported history of dyslexia and neurological disorders. Additionally, all participants indicated during screening that acute symptomology had resolved, with no lingering sequalae and specifically, no appreciable speech or voice deficits.

The participants with SRC sustained their most recent concussion within the last 2 years, as motor function may be affected long-term in this population²³. Participants must have been diagnosed by an MD or athletic trainer, had not been hospitalized for their injury, and had not lost consciousness for more than 20 minutes at the time of injury. One SRC participant’s data was excluded from analysis after the participant later reported the presence of an exclusionary co-morbid neurological disorder. The 30 control (CON) participants were recruited as pairwise matches for the SRC group for height (within 10in.), weight (within 20lbs.), age (within 3 years), education (within 1 grade level) and gender. CON were also made up of both current and former athletes.