Thanks to @profmaitalneta, @hc_bouchard, all other coauthors, and many others who contributed.

Together, these results suggest that concussion history in young adult collegiate athletes is not associated with changes in cortical volume. If you're interested, or want to chat more about these findings, please reach out.

While we did not observe relationships between concussion history and cortical thickness, we did find significant relationships between cortical volume and cognitive performance in the visual and dorsal attention network.

We also did not find any differences from before a diagnosed concussion to 48 hrs following a concussion, or a difference between participants with 2+ concussions to participants with no concussion history.

We did not identify any differences in cortical volume between the groups at the functional network level or at a more fine-grained anatomical region level.

We found no consistent differences in baseline symptom reporting or cognitive performance between the groups.

Is brain morphology different in young adults with and without concussion history? We examined a large (~300) population of college athletes and compared brain morphology between participants with concussion history and those with no history of concussion

The Decision Neuroscience Lab at CB3 in Lincoln, NE ( is looking for a lab coordinator. The job ad can be found here: This is a wonderful group to work with and I'd be happy to answer any questions.

New paper published looking at how second language learning in older adults improves cognitive control and examining the brain changes underlying this improvement: Thanks to all coauthors, especially @SaidiLadan and @Zoha_Deldar

Thanks to everyone who has helped work on the project including @profmaitalneta, @hc_bouchard, @JuliaMLaing, and others.

Future work may be better served by examining how other measures (white matter, functional connectivity, electrophysiology, etc.) can serve as a brain marker of concussion history rather than focusing on cortical morphology.

While it is challenging to interpret null findings, this is consistent with other data suggesting that concussion is related to brain function and connectivity changes opposed to gray matter morphological changes.

Together, we think this suggests that concussion history is not related to cortical volume (in this specific sample- young adult athletes).

Cortical volume in the visual network was pos correlated with visual memory, visual motor, and verbal memory composites. We observed a pos relationship with the DAN and visual memory. There was a neg correlation between volume and RT in the visual network

While we did not observe cortical volume changes related to self-reported concussion history, we did find significant relationships between cortical volume and cognitive performance on the ImPACT.

We did not observe any within subject changes in cortical volume at the functional network or region level from baseline to acute post-concussion (~48 hrs) or from baseline to when they returned to play.

Since we also had MRI data post acute concussion (~48hrs) and immediately prior to when they returned to full sport participation following the injury in a subset of the sample (n~40), we also looked for more acute cortical volume changes related to concussion.

We also looked for possible cortical volume differences related to concussion history at the region level using the Destrieaux atlas, and focusing on participants with more extensive concussion history (2+). We did not observe any meaningful differences in either case.

We did not observe differences in cortical volume across functional networks based on concussion history. In fact, Bayes Factors show moderate evidence FOR the null hypothesis.

Symptom reporting and cognitive performance (as measured with ImPACT) was largely similar for those reporting concussion history and those reporting no concussion history.