Cognitive-Motor Function and Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury Risk: Exploring Relationships Between Clinical and Lab-Based Assessments.
Fatemeh Aflatounian, Patrick D Fischer, James N Becker and 4 others
PMID 40840562WHAT IT FOUND
Clinical dual-task hop tests did not correlate with lab-based biomechanical risk factors for second ACL injury when measuring the change from single to dual task.
However, single-task hop distance did correlate with some biomechanical measures, suggesting dual-task change scores are less useful than raw performance.
Key findings
01There were no significant correlations between dual-task change in clinical hop distance and dual-task change in lab-based biomechanical predictors of second ACL injury.
02When looking at single-task performance alone, clinical hop distance was significantly related to lab-based knee abduction range, with farther hops associated with less risky frontal plane motion.
03The lack of correlation for dual-task change scores may be due to high stability between single and dual-task performance, making the difference score less reliable than the individual task scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study focused on specific jump-landing tasks, which may not represent all movements involved in second ACL injuries. Clinical assessments were limited to hop distance, ignoring other potentially relevant metrics like reaction time or cognitive error rates. The high correlation between single and dual-task performance in this group may have made the dual-task change score statistically unstable and less sensitive. The sample was relatively small (36 participants) and consisted of athletes already cleared for return to sport, which may limit generalizability to earlier stages of rehabilitation.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the lack of correlation in dual-task change scores as evidence that cognitive-motor interference is irrelevant to ACL injury risk. The null finding is specific to the 'change score' metric used here; the study suggests that raw single-task performance may correlate with biomechanics, but the difference between tasks does not.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →