Season-long head acceleration exposure, prior contact-sport history, and cognitive performance in British amateur American football players
- 1University of Exeter
Abstract
Background: Head acceleration events (HAEs) are common in contact sports, but season-long exposure and its relationship with cognitive performance in amateur British American football remain poorly characterised. Methods: Thirty male players were recruited from three British amateur American football teams. Selected Sport Concussion Assessment Tool 6 (SCAT6) components and computerised tasks were assessed across the season. Seasonal analyses included 20 participants, and exposure-linked analyses included 17. Helmet-sensor events were attributed to participants and restricted to participant-assignment and baseline-to-post-season calendar windows. Mixed-effects models assessed seasonal outcomes. Principal component analysis (PCA) summarised standardised baseline-to-post-season changes, and six exposure associations were evaluated. Results: Players recorded a mean of 768 (SD 482) events. Several individual tests improved across the season. The first principal component (PC1) explained 21.9% of change variance and had loadings with opposing signs. Prior seasons had a nominal association with PC1 (slope -0.153, 95% CI -0.305 to -0.00018; r2=0.233; p=0.0498), which did not survive six-test Benjamini-Hochberg (BH) adjustment (p=0.299). No in-season exposure association survived adjustment. Conclusion: Repeated-test performance improved, while exposure associations remained uncertain. The mixed PC1 pattern cannot be interpreted as a uniform measure of global cognitive worsening or improvement.
Related
- Short-term indoor fine particulate matter exposure impedes cognitive performance and autonomic nervous system in adults
- Multiscale structural MRI differences among collegiate American football players, cross-country runners, and non-athletes
- Do methodological limitations and confounding factors explain the apparent acceleration of cognitive decline in older adults taking omega-3 fatty acid supplements?
- Maximal Fat Oxidation Is Associated With Moderate- and High-Speed Running Performance During Competitive Matches in Youth National-Level Football Players: A Retrospective In-Season Study
- The Impact of the ACTN3 rs1815739 Polymorphism on Physical Performance in Youth Football Players
BibTeX
@misc{potter2026seasonlong,
title = {{Season-long head acceleration exposure, prior contact-sport history, and cognitive performance in British amateur American football players}},
author = {P. G. Weightman Potter and E. Rose and N. Tolliday and B. Bond},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.30.755702},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.30.755702v1},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Season-long head acceleration exposure, prior contact-sport history, and cognitive performance in British amateur American football players
AU - P. G. Weightman Potter
AU - E. Rose
AU - N. Tolliday
AU - B. Bond
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/30
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.30.755702
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.30.755702v1
AB - Background: Head acceleration events (HAEs) are common in contact sports, but season-long exposure and its relationship with cognitive performance in amateur British American football remain poorly characterised. Methods: Thirty male players were recruited from three British amateur American football teams. Selected Sport Concussion Assessment Tool 6 (SCAT6) components and computerised tasks were assessed across the season. Seasonal analyses included 20 participants, and exposure-linked analyses included 17. Helmet-sensor events were attributed to participants and restricted to participant-assignment and baseline-to-post-season calendar windows. Mixed-effects models assessed seasonal outcomes. Principal component analysis (PCA) summarised standardised baseline-to-post-season changes, and six exposure associations were evaluated. Results: Players recorded a mean of 768 (SD 482) events. Several individual tests improved across the season. The first principal component (PC1) explained 21.9% of change variance and had loadings with opposing signs. Prior seasons had a nominal association with PC1 (slope -0.153, 95% CI -0.305 to -0.00018; r2=0.233; p=0.0498), which did not survive six-test Benjamini-Hochberg (BH) adjustment (p=0.299). No in-season exposure association survived adjustment. Conclusion: Repeated-test performance improved, while exposure associations remained uncertain. The mixed PC1 pattern cannot be interpreted as a uniform measure of global cognitive worsening or improvement.
ER -