Structural Connectivity Related to Persistent Symptoms After Mild TBI in Adolescents and Response to Aerobic Training: Preliminary Investigation.
Weihong Yuan, Shari L Wade, Catherine Quatman-Yates and 3 others
PMID 28520668WHAT IT FOUND
Brain network scans showed abnormal connectivity in adolescents with persistent post-concussion symptoms.
After 6 to 8 weeks of aerobic training, global efficiency improved and correlated with symptom reduction, but there was no significant difference between the aerobic and stretching groups.
Key findings
01Adolescents with persistent symptoms had significantly lower global efficiency and higher normalized clustering coefficient compared to healthy controls at enrollment.
02In the aerobic training group, global efficiency significantly increased and normalized characteristic path length decreased after the intervention, but these changes did not differ significantly from the stretching group.
03Changes in global efficiency and normalized characteristic path length in the aerobic group were significantly correlated with changes in self-reported symptom scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The sample size was very small, with only 8 participants in the aerobic group and 9 in the stretching group completing post-intervention scans. The study is a preliminary investigation and describes itself as such, requiring replication in larger trials before definitive conclusions can be drawn. Healthy controls were scanned only once, so it is impossible to know if the connectivity changes seen in the injured group are specific to injury recovery or would also occur in healthy adolescents undergoing similar interventions. The analysis used standard diffusion tensor imaging, which may miss complex white matter crossings, and the choice of network metrics may not capture all relevant changes.
Declared interests
The authors declared no competing financial interests.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that aerobic training is superior to stretching for improving brain connectivity in adolescents with persistent post-concussion symptoms. While the aerobic group showed improvements that correlated with symptom relief, the study found no significant difference in connectivity changes between the aerobic and stretching groups.