title: The persistent influence of pediatric concussion on attention and cognitive control during flanker performance.
abstract: This study investigated the influence of concussion history on children's neurocognitive processing. Thirty-two children ages 8-10 years (16 with a concussion history, 16 controls) completed compatible and incompatible conditions of a flanker task while behavioral and neuroelectric data were collected. Relative to controls, children with a concussion history exhibited alterations in the sequential congruency effect, committed more omission errors, and exhibited decreased post-error accuracy. Children with a concussion history exhibited longer N2 latency across task conditions, increased N2 amplitude during the incompatible condition of the task, and decreased P3b amplitude across task conditions. Children with a history of concussion also exhibited decreased ERN and Pe amplitudes, with group difference increasing for the incompatible condition of the task. The current results indicate that pediatric concussion may lead to subtle, but pervasive deficits in attention and cognitive control. These results serve to inform a poorly understood but significant public health concern.
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL, USA; Department of Kinesiology, University of Montreal, Montreal QC, Canada. Electronic address: robert.moore@umontreal.ca.
authors.forename: Robert D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.affiliation: School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough Leicestershire, UK.
authors.forename: Dominika M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Pindus
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL, USA.
authors.forename: Eric S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Drolette
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL, USA.
authors.forename: Mark R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Scudder
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL, USA.
authors.forename: Lauren B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Raine
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL, USA.
authors.forename: Charles H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Hillman
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001924:Brain Concussion / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Brain function; Child; Cognition; Concussion