Anterior cruciate ligament reconstructed individuals demonstrate slower reactions during a dynamic postural task.

INTRODUCTION: To determine whether individuals with a history of anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) exhibit altered neuromotor function compared to healthy controls. It was hypothesized that the ACLR group would have slower postural responses compared to healthy individuals of similar age. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixteen adults with a unilateral ACLR and 16 matched healthy controls participated. General assessments of neuromotor function were gathered and included measures of reaction time (both seated and postural conditions), walking ability, balance, ankle ROM, proprioception, knee joint laxity, patellar tendon reflex latency, and quadriceps strength. Data were analyzed using mixed generalized linear models with between-subject (ie, controls, ACLR) and within-subject factors (ie, affected, unaffected limb). RESULTS: Individuals with an ACLR exhibited a significant slowing of their postural reaction times compared to the control individuals. The ACLR group was slower under both the simple (ACLR: 484 ± 6.17 ms, control: 399 ± 1.95 ms) and choice reaction time conditions (ACLR: 550 ± 43 ms, control: 445 ± 43 ms). No other group differences were found in any of the other measures. CONCLUSION: Overall, ACLR individuals had a reduced ability to respond quickly under more challenging postural conditions (ie, stepping response). This finding would indicate that the impact of an ACLR is not purely mechanical and restricted to the joint. Rather, injury and reconstruction of the ACL impact neural mechanisms, altering individuals' ability to respond under challenging balance tasks.

Visuomotor strategies for collision avoidance in athletes: Insights from virtual reality.

This study explores visuomotor control in athletes for collision avoidance using virtual reality. Thirty-nine athletes navigated dynamic scenarios, pursuing a virtual target while avoiding two to five virtual defenders. Confirmatory Factor Analysis validated a model that captured two features of scanning behavior based on head movements recorded during activity: the overall amount and temporal pattern. Linear mixed models showed that these features significantly differentiated successful from unsuccessful defender avoidance (p < .05), suggesting that efficient environmental scanning is crucial for collision avoidance while highlighting the potential of visuomotor interventions to reduce collision-related sport injuries.

The Intelligent Phenotypic Plasticity Platform (IP3) for Precision Medicine-Based Injury Prevention in Sport.

The best predictor of future injury is previous injury and this has not changed in a quarter century despite the introduction of evidence-based medicine and associated revisions to post-injury treatment and care. Nearly nine million sports-related injuries occur annually, and the majority of these require medical intervention prior to clearance for the athlete to return to play (RTP). Regardless of formal care, these athletes remain two to four times more likely to suffer a second injury for several years after RTP. In the case of children and young adults, this sets them up for a lifetime of negative health outcomes. Thus, the initial injury is the tipping point for a post-injury cascade of negative sequelae exposing athletes to more physical and psychological pain, higher medical costs, and greater risk of severe long-term negative health throughout their life. This chapter details the technologies and method that make up the automated Intelligent Phenotypic Plasticity Platform (IP3)-a revolutionary new approach to the current standard of post-injury care that identifies and targets deficits that underly second injury risk in sport. IP3 capitalizes on the biological concept of phenotypic plasticity (PP) to quantify an athlete's functional adaptability across different performance environments, and it is implemented in two distinct steps: (1) phenomic profiling and (2) precision treatment. Phenomic profiling indexes the fitness and subsequent phenotypic plasticity of an individual athlete, which drives the personalization of the precision treatment step. IP3 leverages mixed-reality technologies to present true-to-life environments that test the athlete's ability to adapt to dynamic stressors. The athlete's phenotypic plasticity profile is then used to drive a precision treatment that systematically stresses the athlete, via a combination of behavioral-based and genetic fuzzy system models, to optimally enhance the athlete's functional adaptability. IP3 is computationally light-weight and, through the integration with mixed-reality technologies, promotes real-time prediction, responsiveness, and adaptation. It is also the first ever phenotypic plasticity-based precision medicine platform, and the first precision sports medicine platform of any kind.

Postural control development from late childhood through young adulthood.

BACKGROUND: The development of stable postural control is characterized by changes in sway variability and periods of rapid reorganization of motor system components. RESEARCH QUESTION: The current study examined whether changing biomechanical and perceptual demands influences the postural control behavior during development. METHOD: The center of pressure (COP) was assessed via a cross-sectional design. Data were collected from 48 females in three age groups (late childhood, mid-adolescence, and young adulthood) during four quiet stance conditions: (1) eyes open with feet apart, (2) eyes open with feet together, (3) eyes closed with feet apart, and (4) eyes closed with feet together. Linear measures included total path length of the COP and the mean/standard deviation of the overall COP position and speed. To characterize the sway patterns via nonlinear analyses, the speed and two-dimensional positional time series were submitted to sample entropy and Renyi entropy, respectively. RESULTS: The linear results indicated that the late childhood group displayed longer COP trajectories (p < .001) and faster and more variable COP speed (p's < .001). These results held for both the feet apart and feet together conditions, independent of vision. The nonlinear results indicated that the late childhood group exhibited less regularity, overall, in their COP sway position (i.e., Renyi entropy) compared to the two older groups in the feet apart condition (p's ≤ .041), and to the young adults in the feet together condition, independent of vision (p < .001). However, the mid-adolescent group demonstrated greater regularity in their COP speed (i.e., sample entropy) when their eyes were closed compared to the other two groups, independent of stance (p's < .05). SIGNIFICANCE: The linear results support previous findings, while the nonlinear measures indicate sway characteristics that may provide a window into the development of underlying control processes that regulate quiet standing.

The Additive Effects of Cell Phone Use and Dental Hygiene Practice on Finger Muscle Strength: A Pilot Study.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine strength of muscles involved with instrumentation (scaling) by dental hygienists and the additive effects of cellular (mobile) phone usage, as indicated by measurements of muscular force generation.Methods: A convenience sample of licensed dental hygienists currently in clinical practice (n=16) and an equal number of individuals not currently using devices/tools repetitively for work (n=16), agreed to participate in this pilot study. All participants completed a modified cell phone usage questionnaire to determine their use pattern and frequency. Upon completion of the questionnaire, participants' force production in six muscle groups was measured using a hand-held dynamometer. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.Results: A total of 16 licensed dental hygienists (n=16) and 16 participants with no history of using tools/devices repetitively for work (n=16), comprised the experimental and control groups, repectively. The control group generated greater muscle force than the experimental group for the abductor pollicis longus (p=0.045). Significant differences were identified when comparing the low mobile phone users in the experimental group to the control group for the flexor pollicis brevis (p=0.031), abductor pollicis longus (p=0.031), and flexor digitorum (p=0.006), with the control group demonstrating higher muscle force. Years in clinical practice and mobile phone use was shown to have a significant effect on muscular force generation for the flexor pollicis brevis (F=3.645, df=3, p=0.020) and flexor digitorum (F=3.560, df=3, p=0.022); subjects who practiced dental hygiene the longest produced the least amount of muscle force.Conclusion: Results from this pilot study indicate there are no significant additive effects of cell phone use and dental hygiene practice on finger muscles used for instrumentation. However, results indicate that dental hygiene practice demonstrated significant effects on muscular strength as compared to individuals who do not use tools/devices repetitively for work. The small sample size may have impacted results and the study should be repeated with a larger sample.