This program involves conducting baseline neuropsychological testing with most of the athletes participating in varsity contact sports at Penn State. We test the athletes when they first arrive on campus. If they experience a concussion while at PSU, we then follow-up with post-concussion neuropsychological testing that involves re-testing with alternate test forms and comparing athletes’ performance to baseline test results. This information is provided to trainers and team physicians to assist them in making return to play decisions. Graduate students working in my lab typically are involved in this program, conducting testing in addition to report write-up and interpretation. Undergraduates also have research opportunities involving neuropsychological testing, scoring, and data management. We are exploring a number of research questions relating to this program, in particular, questions pertaining to the assessment of motivational issues and how best to detect clinically significant change in concussed athletes. Some of our work in this realm is outlined in a recent publication in JINS here. The first author on this paper, Chris Bailey, is a graduate student working in my lab who is currently on internship at University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
Two other recent articles describe additional aspects of our research pertaining to motivation here and practice effects here.