Date of Award

2015-01-01

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Speech-Language Pathology

Advisor(s)

Patricia Lara

Abstract

Concussions affect an estimated 1.6 to 3.8 million individuals annually and can result in persistent symptoms and cognitive impairments in attention and memory. Concussions are a rising health concern especially in concussion management. Event Related Potentials (ERP) may more accurately assess cognitive recovery making better return to play decisions. In 2013, Sanchez found no significant difference between concussed athletes and non-concussed individuals in the in amplitude of the P300 ERP component using an auditory oddball task consisting of 2 different consonant, vowel (CV) syllables. Because participants were instructed to maintain a mental and verbal count of the target stimuli, a significant difference between the two groups was found in the latency of the P300a at electrode site FCz. Sanchez (2013) attributed these findings to the complexity of the linguistic component explaining that an increase in complexity increases the cognitive demands required for task completion. The purpose of the current study was to replicate Sanchez' (2013) study by removing the variable of keeping a mental or verbal count of the target stimuli. Results from the present study revealed no statistically significant difference between the two groups in the P300a or b suggesting that the linguistic complexity did not affect the amplitude and latency of the P300 in concussed athletes.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

70 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Christopher Anthony Roosmalen

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