Scientists continually perform studies to discover why some people are more likely to sustain concussions than others, and we’re always happy to hear about the ongoing research. One recent example was a pilot study from Northwestern Medicine and Penn State University that was published in the Journal of Neurotrauma this past fall.
Scientists studied 87 Penn State football players (“We Are!”) between 2015 and 2017. The researchers took swabs of the players’ inner cheeks to study a specific gene, KIAA0319, which comes in three “variants” – CC, CT and TT, and previously had not been looked at in concussion research. They wanted to see how this gene and others related to cell adhesion and neuron migrations could potentially play a role in the players’ susceptibility to concussion. The study was part of a larger project in the Neuroimaging Consortium which is studying the neuroscience of head impacts in athletes.
What the Study Found:
The study determined that athletes with the “CC” version of the gene were somehow less likely to have experienced concussion compared to the athletes with the other gene variants. How? One theory is that the brain “wiring” linked to the dyslexia gene may somehow protect the brain from vibration or force. Dyslexia is a learning disorder that affects the part of the brain that processed language and causes reading difficulties.
In a related press release, co-author of the study, Dr. Hans Brieter, explained that, “In dyslexia, you tend to have less-defined wiring for processing spoken and written language. Dyslexics have a problem with that. Their wiring is more diffuse in this system. Future studies could directly test if diffuse wiring is better able to absorb a shockwave than clearly defined wiring.”
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