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Objective: To assess the relationship between sport-parenting practices and concussion reporting intentions of collegiate athletes across two levels of competition. Participants: Entering first-year student-athletes (varsity and club) at a mid-sized university in the Southeast region of the United States (n = 327). Methods: Written surveys were completed prior to the start of the 2015 academic year. Structural equation modeling was used to test a model predicting concussion-reporting intentions. Results: College athletes were more likely to intend to report a suspected concussion when they believed their parents wanted them to report (B=-0.88, SD = 0.94), and when they experienced less sport achievement pressure from their parents (B=-0.12, SD = 8.07). Conclusions: Parents influence the concussion safety of entering collegiate athletes at both the varsity and club level. Lower pressure sport parenting prior to college entry may help foster safer concussion reporting behaviors and may be an appropriate target for future intervention development work.

Many classrooms are beginning to substitute standard chairs with therapy balls, which help to improve students' focus and classroom performance, according to teacher and student reports. Researchers conducted an observational study in a classroom at a local elementary school that implemented therapy balls. For each hour-long observation, three independent researchers marked seated behaviors of students (N = 19). The first observation was conducted when students were using standard chairs, and two more were conducted when students used therapy balls during classroom activities. Researchers observed the behaviors of students on the given seating device, including academic task (on/off task), effort level, attitude, interactions, seated behavior (bouncing/rocking/stationary/other), and intensity level of participation in classroom activities. Analysis of the collected data demonstrates that 50% of observations when students were seated on standard chairs indicated on task behavior, while 85% of observations when students were seated on therapy balls were recorded as on task behavior. In addition, movement while seated increased on the therapy balls (35% of observations indicated stationary seated behavior) compared to the standard chairs (47% observations indicated stationary seated behavior). The increased rocking and bouncing seated behavior on the therapy balls suggests that the seating device helps to engage the vestibular system. In addition, stationary behavior on therapy balls was often classified as proprioceptive. The results from the observational study will allow researchers to further investigate whether or not engaging the vestibular system can help to improve performance on functional school skills.

Mentoring research and development often uses a mentor-protégé model, but research often takes place in teams. In this exploratory study, the authors identify the structures and prevalence of multi-mentoring teams by surveying undergraduate researchers about the people who helped them and the support they received. Research teams were common, and interdisciplinary projects involved more mentors. Faculty were more often considered mentors than others, and those providing information and appraisal were more often mentors than those providing psychosocial support. Students with multiple mentors received more support than those with one or none. Natural science projects experienced higher rates of both mentorship and multi-mentoring, which carries implications for student and faculty development.

Context: Though previous research has focused on examining the effects of concussion history using a dual-task paradigm, the influence of factors like symptoms (unrelated to concussion), gender, and type of sport on gait in college athletes is unknown. Objective: To examine the effect of concussion history, symptoms, gender, and type of sport (noncontact/limited contact/contact) individually on gait among college athletes. Design: Exploratory cross-sectional study. Setting: Laboratory. Participants: In total, 98 varsity athletes (age, 18.3 [1.0] y; height, 1.79 [0.11] m; mass, 77.5 [19.2] kg; 27 with concussion history, 58 reported at least one symptom, 44 females; 8 played noncontact sports and 71 played contact sports) walked under single- and dual-task (walking while counting backward by 7) conditions. Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: Dual-task cost (DTC; % difference between single task and dual task) of gait speed, cadence, step length and width, percentage of swing and double-support phases, symptom score, and total symptom severity score. Independent samples t tests and 1-way analysis of variance were conducted (α value =.05). Results: Self-reported concussion history resulted in no significant differences (P >.05). Those who reported symptoms at testing time showed significantly greater DTC of step length (mean difference [MD], 2.7%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.3% to 5.1%; P =.012), % of swing phase (MD, 1.0%; 95% CI, −0.2 to 2.1%; P =.042), and % of double-support phase (MD, 3.9%; 95% CI, 0.2% to 7.8%; P =.019). Females demonstrated significantly higher DTC of gait speed (MD, 5.3%; 95% CI, 1.3% to 9.3%; P =.005), cadence (MD, 4.0%; 95% CI, 1.4% to 6.5%; P =.002), % of swing phase (MD, 1.2%; 95% CI, 0.1% to 2.3%; P =.019), and % of double-support phase (MD, 4.1%; 95% CI, 0.4% to 7.9%; P =.018). Noncontact sports athletes had significantly greater step width DTC than contact sports athletes (MD, 14.2%; 95% CI, 0.9% to 27.6%; P =.032). Conclusions: Reporting symptoms at testing time may influence gait under dual-task conditions. Additionally, female athletes showed more gait changes during a dual task. Sports medicine professionals should be aware that these variables, while unrelated to injury, may affect an athlete's gait upon analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Sports often involve complex movement patterns, such as turning. Although cognitive load effects on gait patterns are well known, little is known on how it affects biomechanics of turning gait among athletes. Such information could help evaluate how concussion affects turning gait required for daily living and sports. Objective: To determine the effect of a dual task on biomechanics of turning while walking among college athletes. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: University laboratory. Participants: Fifty-three participants performed 5 trials of a 20-m walk under single- and dual-task conditions at self-selected speed with a 180° turn at 10-m mark. The cognitive load included subtraction, spelling words backward, or reciting the months backward. Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: Turn duration, turning velocity, number of steps, SD of turn duration and velocity, and coefficient of variation of turn duration and velocity. Results: Participants turned significantly slower (155.99 [3.71] cm/s vs 183.52 [4.17] cm/s; P <.001) and took longer time to complete the turn (2.63 [0.05] s vs 2.33 [0.04] s; P <.001) while dual tasking, albeit taking similar number of steps to complete the turn. Participants also showed more variability in turning time under the dual-task condition (SD of turn duration = 0.39 vs 0.31 s; P =.004). Conclusions: Overall, college athletes turned slower and showed more variability during turning gait while performing a concurrent cognitive dual-task turning compared with single-task turning. The slower velocity increased variability may be representative of specific strategy of turning gait while dual tasking, which may be a result of the split attention to perform the cognitive task. The current study provides descriptive values of absolute and variability turning gait parameters for sports medicine personnel to use while they perform their concussion assessments on their college athletes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Research has shown that movement impairments following stroke are typically associated with the limb contralateral to the side of the stroke. Prior studies identified ipsilateral motor declines across a [...]

ABSTRACT. The authors investigated whether visual fixations during a continuous graphical task were related to arm endpoint kinematics, joint motions, or joint control. The pattern of visual fixations across various [...]

Gait impairments have been documented following sport-related concussion. Whether preexisting gait pattern differences exist among athletes who participate in different sport classifications, however, remains unclear. Dual-task gait examinations probe the simultaneous performance of everyday tasks (ie, walking and thinking), and can quantify gait performance using inertial sensors. The purpose of this study was to compare the single-task and dual-task gait performance of collision/contact and noncontact athletes. A group of collegiate athletes (n = 265) were tested before their season at 3 institutions (mean age= 19.1 ± 1.1 years). All participants stood still (single-task standing) and walked while simultaneously completing a cognitive test (dual-task gait), and completed walking trials without the cognitive test (single-task gait). Spatial-temporal gait parameters were compared between collision/contact and noncontact athletes using MANCOVAs; cognitive task performance was compared using ANCOVAs. No significant single-task or dual-task gait differences were found between collision/contact and noncontact athletes. Noncontact athletes demonstrated higher cognitive task accuracy during single-task standing (P = .001) and dual-task gait conditions (P = .02) than collision/contact athletes. These data demonstrate the utility of a dual-task gait assessment outside of a laboratory and suggest that preinjury cognitive task performance during dual-tasks may differ between athletes of different sport classifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifteen older adults (M = 68 years old) and 15 young adults (M = 23 years old) participated in a speed-accuracy task in which aiming movements were performed on a digitizing tablet to assess movement slowing and variability in older adults. Target-size and movement amplitude influences were analyzed separately to determine if they affected the performance of the young and older adults differently. When target size was increased, older adults did not increase the relative distance traveled in the primary submovement. When movement amplitude was increased, older adults did not scale movement velocities to the same magnitude as young adults did. Both the inability to scale velocity and the inability to increase the relative distance traveled in the primary submovement contribute to slower, more variable movements observed in older adults depending on task parameters. Thus, these data reveal that manipulation of target size and movement amplitude yield two distinct factors that contribute to slowness of movement in older adults.

Objectives: Balance in breast cancer survivors is understudied. Increased understanding of how postural control is affected when the body is stationary, moving, or engaged in a concurrent cognitive task, can aid clinicians who work with this population in identifying how altered postural control may indicate a potential functional decline. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare performance on several assessments of static and dynamic balance, with and without a concurrent cognitive task, in women with and without a history of breast cancer. Methods: Twenty-three women without a history of cancer (controls), and 20 women who were breast cancer survivors participated in the study. Static balance was assessed using the Single Leg Stance Test (SLS) and the NeuroCom Sensory Organization Test (SOT), the latter of which also included a serial sevens cognitive task. Dynamic balance was assessed using the Timed Up and Go Test (TUG) and the Fullerton Advanced Balance Scale (FABS). Results: Breast cancer survivors performed significantly worse on the TUG and the FABS compared to controls (p <.02). Performance on the SLS and SOT was largely similar between groups, including performance on the SOT with the serial sevens task (p >.05). Conclusion: Breast cancer survivors who were 0–5 years post-treatment appeared to exhibit similar static postural stability compared to controls, while some aspects of dynamic balance appeared altered. Assessing balance changes provides clinically useful information when constructing specific interventions aimed to improve function in these individuals post-treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates whether regulation of interactive torque during multijoint movements decays with advanced age as a result of declines in the motor system. Young and elderly adults repeatedly drew a circle and ovals oriented in different directions using shoulder and elbow joint movements. Each template was traced at three levels of cycling frequency with and without vision. Although vision did not affect performance, increases in cycling frequency caused distortions of movement trajectories in both groups. The pattern of distortions differed, however, between the groups. These differences were accounted for by differences in elbow control. Young adults provided regulation of elbow amplitude and timing by matching muscle torque magnitude with increased interactive torque. In contrast, elderly adults did not increase muscle torque magnitude and modulated torque timing for elbow motion regulation. This strategy is discussed as adaptation to decrements in the aging motor system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the influence of the biomechanical constraints on horizontal arm movements through an analysis of cyclical arm movements in the horizontal plane limited to rotation at the elbow and shoulder. Kinematic features of horizontal arm movements; Torque analysis; Trends in the fingertip movement induced by increases in cycling frequency; Commonalities and differences in control of various movements.