Dr. Eleanna Varangis
Dr. James Eckner
Dr. Philip Veliz
This pilot study seeks to compare neurocognitive and neuroimaging outcomes between a convenience cohort of older male and female athletes (ages 50-80 years) recruited from the UM Alumni population who participated in contact or collision sports in High School vs. a matched cohort who participated in non-contact sports in High School in pursuit of the following aims: AIM 1: to explore the relationship between contact/collision sport participation history and in-person measures of cognitive performance; AIM 2: to explore the relationship between contact/collision sport participation history and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based measures of brain morphology and structural connectivity; AIM 3: to explore the relationship between contact/collision sport participation history and measures of neural recruitment during a novel cognitive task of episodic memory.