Publications by authors named "Hannah B Bitzer"

Background: Adolescence represents a window of vulnerability for developing psychological symptoms following concussion, especially in girls. Concussion-related lesions in emotion regulation circuits may help explain these symptoms. However, the contribution of sex and pubertal maturation remains unclear.

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Background: Sleep problems are common after concussion; yet, to date, no study has evaluated the relationship between sleep, white matter integrity, and post-concussion symptoms in adolescents. Using self-reported quality of sleep measures within the first 10 days of injury, we aimed to determine if quality of sleep exerts a main effect on white matter integrity in major tracts, as measured by diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging (dMRI), and further examine whether this effect can help explain the variance in post-concussion symptom severity in 12- to 17.9-year-old adolescents.

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Context: In 2018, the US military developed the Military Acute Concussion Evaluation-2 (MACE-2) to inform the acute evaluation of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). However, researchers have yet to investigate false-positive rates for components of the MACE-2, including the Vestibular-Ocular Motor Screening (VOMS) and modified Balance Error Scoring System (mBESS), in military personnel.

Objective: To examine factors associated with false-positive results on the VOMS and mBESS in US Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) personnel.

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Following concussion, adolescents often experience vestibular and ocular motor symptoms as well as working memory deficits that may affect their cognitive, academic and social well-being. Complex visual environments including school activities, playing sports, or socializing with friends may be overwhelming for concussed adolescents suffering from headache, dizziness, nausea and fogginess, thus imposing heightened requirements on working memory to adequately function in such environments. While understanding the relationship between working memory and vestibular/ocular motor symptoms is critically important, no previous study has examined how an increase in working memory task difficulty affects the relationship between severity of vestibular/ocular motor symptoms and brain and behavioural responses in a working memory task.

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Concussion among adolescents continues to be a public health concern. Yet, the differences in brain function between adolescents with a recent concussion and adolescents with no history of concussion are not well understood. Although resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can be a useful tool in examining these differences, few studies have used this technique to examine concussion in adolescents.

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Context: Research in the area of dual-task paradigms to assess sport-related concussion (SRC) status is growing, but additional assessment of this paradigm in adolescents is warranted.

Design: This case-control study compared 49 adolescent athletes aged 12-20 years with diagnosed SRC to 49 age- and sex-matched controls on visual-spatial discrimination and perceptual inhibition (PIT) reaction time tasks performed while balancing on floor/foam pad conditions.

Methods: The SRC group completed measures at a single time point between 1 and 10 days postinjury.

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Concussion symptoms in adolescents typically resolve within 4 weeks. However, 20 - 30% of adolescents experience a prolonged recovery. Abnormalities in tracts implicated in visuospatial attention and emotional regulation (i.

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Unlabelled: The Military Acute Concussion Evaluation 2 (MACE 2), which includes the Vestibular-Ocular Motor Screening (VOMS) tool and the single-leg stance component of the modified Balance Error Scoring System (mBESS), was introduced in 2018 as an assessment of acute mTBI in US military personnel. However, the reliability of the VOMS and mBESS in this population has not been established.

Objectives: The primary purpose of this study was to examine the reliability of the VOMS across a 6-month period in healthy, uninjured US Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) personnel.

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Introduction: Treatment approaches for mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) have evolved to focus on active and targeted therapies, but the effect of compliance with therapy has not been investigated. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of patient compliance with prescribed therapies on clinical outcomes following mTBI.

Materials And Methods: Participants were aged 18-60 years with chronic (ie, 6+ months) mTBI symptoms who were previously recalcitrant (n = 66).

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