Can Concussions and Head Injuries Affect Memory?

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Recommended: The effects of a concussion on an athlete

There has been a debate on whether concussions and head injuries can affect the cognitive functions such as memory. Concussions are fairly common in many sports, in the United States 300,000 sports related concussions are reported each year (Convassin, Stearne and Elbin’s, 2008). Some of the key factors, which influence concussion and cognitive functioning, are age, sex, previous concussions and high intensity activity. There are a few different studies that argue about concussion and how it can affect cognitive function such as memory. Iverson (2004) et al reported that high school athletes with a history of three or more concussions presented more symptoms and poorer memory performance on neurocognitive testing at baseline than athletes with no history of concussion (Iverson et al, 2006). In Moser’s study he found the opposite that high school athletes with a history of two or more concussions demonstrated similar cognitive performance as high school athletes who had sustained a concussion in the past week (Convassin, Stearne and Elbin’s, 2008).
Many of the studies involve the participants sitting a neuropsychological test and compared their results. Neuropsychological tests are designed to examine cognitive abilities, such as speed information processing, memory, language attention and executive functions. Neuropsychological testing is important for assessing and treating traumatic brain injury, but also important for testing and examining the effects of medical conditions on brain functioning (Iverson et al., 2004). A Neuropsychological test that is frequently used through out these studies is known as ImPACT.
In Convassin, Stearne and Elbin’s (2008) study they compared the baseline and post concussion neurocognitive scores ...

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...Rimel and Jane (1996) study they examine neuropsychological functioning in college football players, they wanted to determine the presence and duration of symptoms after a concussion. Injured athletes showed a cognitive functions declined. They also found that brain activation patterns showed a decrease in activation of the right hemisphere, players with head injuries showed the normal symptoms for the first few hours but with in five days the impairment had resolved. They found that these athletes showed significant improvement between 24 hours and five days (Macciocchi et al., 1996).
Therefore, concussion and head injuries can have an effect on cognitive functions. Before an athlete returns to the field, sports medicine professionals should continue to do testing, and closely monitor neurocognitive recovery to make sure that no further damage has or will be done.

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