This paper aims to familiarize readers with the contemporary scientific literature available on sports concussion as it relates to populations divergent from adult males who play football and hockey. Herein, we focus on important issues such as age, gender, culture, language, sport type, and premorbid conditions (such as learning disabilities [LD] and attention deficit/hyperactive disorder [ADHD]) that can influence concussion incidence, severity, and recovery.
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Christine M. Salinas and Frank M. Webbe
Paul Comper, Michael Hutchison, Doug Richards, and Lynda Mainwaring
Along with the ever growing awareness among the scientific community and the general public that concussion is a serious health care issue at all levels of sport, with potentially devastating long term health effects, the number of concussion surveillance clinical monitoring programs has significantly increased internationally over the past 10–15 years. An effective concussion program (a “best practice” model) is clinically prudent and evidence-based, one that is an interdisciplinary model involving health professionals who manage, educate, and provide psychosocial support to athletes. The integration of neuropsychological assessment is a component of many present day programs, and therefore, the neuropsychologist is an integral member of the concussion management team. The University of Toronto Concussion Program, operational since 1999, integrates best practices and current evidence into a working model of concussion management for university athletes. The model uses an interdisciplinary approach to monitor and assess athletes with concussions, as well as to educate its athletes, coaches, and administrators. A research component is also integral to the program.
Zachary C. Merz, Joanne E. Perry, and Michael J. Ross
, represents a clinician with appropriate training and clinical experiences to competently treat athletes within the realms of neuropsychology, sport psychology, and clinical psychology. It is important to note that although this case represents a provider with areas of training that may not be shared by all
Eric A. Roy, Liana Brown, Tammi Winchester, Paula Square, Craig Hall, and Sandra Black
Apraxia is an impairment in the ability to pantomime or imitate gestures usually caused by a stroke more frequently to the left than the right hemisphere. Due to the complex nature of apraxia, disruptions to a number of different cognitive and motor processes have been proposed to underly this disorder. In order to examine disruptions to these processes the participation of a special population of people who have suffered a stroke has been enlisted. The role of memory has been particularly well elucidated in studies of this special population, as patients with left hemisphere damage exhibit a particular deficit in performing gestures from memory. In this paper, through use of a model depicting the stages involved in gestural production, the processes that might be affected at each stage by left hemisphere damage are examined. The implications of the “cognitive neuropsychology” approach for incorporating special populations into research in the movement sciences are considered.
M.A. Urbin
Goal-directed movement is possible because the cortical regions regulating movement have continuous access to visual information. Extensive research from the various domains of motor control (i.e., neurophysiology, neuropsychology, and psychophysics) has documented the extent to which the unremitting availability of visual information enables the sensorimotor system to facilitate online control of goal-directed limb movement. However, the control mechanism guiding appreciably more complex movements characterized by ballistic, whole-body coordination is not well understood. In the overarm throw, for example, joint rotations must be optimally timed between body segments to exploit the passive flow of kinetic energy and, in turn, maximize projectile speed while maintaining accuracy. The purpose of this review is to draw from the various research domains in motor control and speculate on the nature of the sensorimotor control mechanism facilitating overarm throwing performance.
Onno G. Meijer, Yakov M. Kots, and V. Reggie Edgerton
In 1963, an article on “Tonus” (tone), written by Nikolai A. Bernstein and Yakov M. Kots. appeared in the second edition of the Bols'aja Medicinskaja Enciclopedija [Grand Medical Encyclopedia]. The paper is now published for the first time in the English language, with Mark L. Latash as translator. In accordance with then contemporary neurophysiology and neuropsychology, the paper presented “tone” as a graded phenomenon (as opposed to all-or-none), serving to prepare the segmental level for phasic contractions. Influenced by Granit and Matthews, the authors proposed that the suprasegmental level controls the threshold and the slope of the stretch reflex. In their introduction to the present edition, the editors understand this proposal in the context of low-dimensional control, that is. control in terms of one or a few variables (as opposed to central commands specifying all the details). Selected episodes from the history of low dimensional control and its logical counterpart, spinal intelligence, are used to illustrate how difficult these ideas were to accept. As so often in new scientific developments, confusion was the rule, and in this respect the paper on “Tonus” is no exception. In the epilogue, Kots gives his personal memories of the context in which the paper was written. At the time, he was working on “equitonometry” (equitonometric), measuring tonic balance with gravity eliminated. Results of equitonometric research quite naturally led to the idea that suprasegmental centers control the threshold and the slope of me tonic stretch reflex. As Kots remembers, that was “no big deal.”
Arend W. A. Van Gemmert and Hans-Leo Teulings
The term graphonomics refers to the scientific and technological effort involved in identifying relationships between the planning and generation of handwriting and drawing movements, the resulting spatial traces of writing and drawing instruments (either conventional or electronic), and the dynamic features of these traces (International Graphonomics Society, 1987). Since the term graphonomics was coined in 1982, the multidisciplinary nature of graphonomic research has attracted scientists in several fundamental and applied areas, including motor control, motor learning, motor development, movement disorders, neuropsychology, biophysics, forensic science, computer science, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, among others. The many different research areas that are represented at the biennial conferences of the International Graphonomic Society (IGS) are exemplified by the variety of research papers published in special issues and books resulting from these conferences (cf. Meulenbroek & Van Gemmert, 2003; Simner & Girouard, 2000; Van Galen & Morasso, 1998; Simner, Leedham, & Thomassen, 1996; Faure, Keuss, Lorette, & Vinter, 1994; Simner, Hulstijn, & Girouard, 1994; Plamondon, 1993; Van Galen & Stelmach, 1993; Van Galen, Thomassen, & Wing, 1991; Wann, Wing, & Søvik, 1991; Plamondon & Leedham, 1990; Plamondon, Suen, & Simner, 1989; Kao, Van Galen, & Hoosain, 1986; Thomassen, Keuss, Van Galen, & Grootveld, 1983). Starting at the 10th IGS conference in Nijmegen, 2001, the influence of multidisciplinary collaborations and technical advancements expanded the scope of paradigms of researchers interested in graphonomics (e.g., finger control, isometric force control, brain imaging). This expansion of paradigms and the multidisciplinary nature of graphonomic research was pushed further into the center of fine motor control at the 11th IGS conference held in Scottsdale, 2003. This special issue of Motor Control, containing papers from this conference, exemplifies this progress.
Natalie S. Sherry, Abigail Feder, Raymond Pan, Shawn R. Eagle, and Anthony P. Kontos
sustaining a concussion ( McCrory et al., 2017 ). When starting care with our clinic, patients are initially evaluated by a neuropsychologist and/or a neuropsychology postdoctoral fellow and the provider renders decisions regarding the involvement of other clinical team members in the patient’s care. Members
Lauren E. Bullard, Colt A. Coffman, Jacob J.M. Kay, Jeffrey P. Holloway, Robert D. Moore, and Matthew B. Pontifex
Neuropsychology, 35 ( 3 ), 291 – 301 . https://doi.org/10.1093/arclin/acz007 30796799 Barkley , R.A. ( 1997 ). Behavioral inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: Constructing a unifying theory of ADHD . Psychological Bulletin, 121 ( 1 ), 65 – 94 . https://doi.org/10
Iréné Lopez-Fontana, Carole Castanier, Christine Le Scanff, and Alexandra Perrot
Neuropsychology, 22 ( 4 ), 518 – 528 . PubMed doi:10.1076/1380-3395(200008)22:4;1-0;FT518 10.1076/1380-3395(200008)22:4;1-0;FT518 Baker , L.D. , Frank , L.L. , Foster-Schubert , K. , Green , P.S. , Wilkinson , C.W. , McTiernan , A. , … Craft , S. ( 2010 ). Effects of aerobic exercise on mild
