CMIC Seminar: Characterizing microstructural features of repetitive subconcussive head impacts in sport and their role in the exposure-response relationship

Speaker: Dr Michael Lipton, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
UCL Contact: Dominique Drai (Visitors from outside UCL please email in advance).
Date/Time: 23 Jan 18, 13:00 - 14:00
Venue: Roberts G08

Abstract

Sport provides a popular venue for physical activity, which in turn confers major benefits on brain health over the short- and long-term. Sport-related head impacts, however, are an increasing area of concern, which may attenuate benefit and have been linked with both short- and long-term alteration of brain structure and function. Clinically recognized concussion has been the major focus, but growing evidence suggests impacts not reaching the level of frank concussion may have similar effects, especially when repeated frequently over long periods of time. Our work focuses on understanding this exposure-response relationship in order to design reasonable evidence-based approaches to prevention and intervention. We consider repeated low magnitude impacts as an environmental exposure, which will first induce reversible tissue changes in the absence of overt dysfunction, but may lead to persistent tissue and functional effects with sufficient exposure, especially in vulnerable individuals. To be effective, prevention and early intervention must be implemented at stages preceding permanently altered structure and function. To this end, methods such as neuroimaging are essential to detect and characterize early effects of repetitive injury on the brain. We employ diffusion-MRI to characterize microstructural alteration related to exposure to head impacts and their relation to functional outcomes. In addition to findings from our longitudinal study of athletes, this talk will encompass methodological considerations, such as spatial variation of the distribution of pathology, likely occurrence of pathology at problematic locations (e.g., grey-white junction) that may be problematic for assessment and challenges to the assessment of within-person change over time.

Dr Michael Lipton

Dr. Lipton, a neuroradiologist and neuroscientist, is Associate Director of the Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center and Director of Radiology Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine as well as Medical Director of MRI Services at its University Hospital, Montefiore Medical Center, both in New York. He divides his professional time between the clinical practice of neuroradiology, teaching and research. Dr. Lipton’s research program has focused for nearly a decade on detecting and characterizing the effects of mild brain injury (AKA concussion). Specific areas of emphasis at present include the understanding of inter-individual differences in the manifestations of brain injury and the cumulative effects of repetitive subconcussive injury in sports. Dr. Lipton’s work on the impact of subconcussive “heading” on brain structure and function in amateur soccer players, funded by the Dana Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, has been reported extensively in the press worldwide.