Orbitofrontal Gray-White Interface Injury and the Association of Soccer Heading With Verbal Learning

Is the orbitofrontal gray matter–white matter interface (GWI) a locus of injury due to repetitive head impacts (RHIs) among soccer players, and does it mediate RHI associations with poorer verbal learning?In this cross-sectional study of RHI in 352 adult amateur soccer players, greater RHI exposure was associated with attenuation of orbitofrontal GWI fractional anisotropy slope sharpness, and orbitofrontal fractional anisotropy slope mediated the association between RHI and International Shopping List Task score.These findings suggest that soccer RHI-related consequences are specific to orbitofrontal GWI, where disruption plays a mediating role in the adverse association of RHI with cognitive performance.

Corresponding Author: Michael L. Lipton, MD, PhD, Department of Radiology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, 530 W 166th St, New York, NY 10032 (mll2219@cumc.columbia.edu).

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