Concussion is associated with significant functional disturbances in the first week post-injury. Computerized neurocognitive testing tools have become widely adopted in concussion management, to identify specific domains of impairment and obtain more objective measures of recovery. Reaction time (RT) slowing is a common sequela of concussion, however, the functional brain networks that underlie RT performance remain under-studied in both healthy and concussed athletic cohorts. This study used blood-oxygenation-level-dependent function magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD fMRI) to evaluate resting brain function of 45 university-level athletes with concussion in the first week post-injury, along with a control cohort of 102 athletes without recent concussion. We evaluated the main effects of concussion and RT on functional connectivity, along with concussion × RT interactions, using multivariate analysis techniques. Concussion was associated with reduced connectivity throughout the brain, whereas RT slowing was associated with elevated connectivity in parietal and temporal regions, for both control and concussed groups. For the concussed group, RT slowing was also associated with disrupted connectivity between fronto-insular and default mode networks. For concussed athletes, the brain networks associated with slower post-injury RT also showed similar but non-significant associations with longitudinal changes in RT performance relative to pre-injury baseline. These study findings provide new insights into the effects of concussion on neurocognitive function and suggest the presence of functional brain networks that are specific to concussion-related RT slowing.

脑震荡与受伤后第一周的显着功能障碍有关。计算机化的神经认知测试工具已广泛应用于脑震荡管理，以确定特定的损伤区域并获得更客观的恢复措施。反应时间 (RT) 减慢是脑震荡的常见后遗症，然而，在健康和脑震荡的运动队列中，作为 RT 表现基础的功能性大脑网络仍未得到充分研究。这项研究使用血氧水平依赖性功能磁共振成像 (BOLD fMRI) 来评估 45 名大学级别的脑震荡运动员在受伤后第一周的静息脑功能，以及 102 名近期没有脑震荡的运动员的对照组. 我们评估了脑震荡和 RT 对功能连接的主要影响，以及脑震荡 × RT 相互作用，使用多变量分析技术。对于对照组和脑震荡组，脑震荡与整个大脑的连接性降低有关，而 RT 减慢与顶叶和颞区连接性升高有关。对于脑震荡组，RT 减慢还与额岛网络和默认模式网络之间的连接中断有关。对于脑震荡运动员，与较慢的受伤后 RT 相关的大脑网络也显示出与受伤前基线的 RT 性能纵向变化相似但不显着的关联。这些研究结果为脑震荡对神经认知功能的影响提供了新的见解，并表明存在特定于脑震荡相关 RT 减慢的功能性大脑网络。