As per a recently published study in the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, the elite young ice hockey players with sport-related concussion manifest altered divided attention and cervical spine function. No significant changes in the tests of vestibulo-ocular function and dynamic balance were noted following a concussion.

The concussion is the most frequently occurred sports injury. However, what kind of changes happened in vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR), divided attention, cervical spine and dynamic balance of a player after the concussion is not well understood. 

Kathryn J. Schneider and colleagues evaluated the change in these measures among 13 to 17 years old ice hockey players following the concussion. The assessment of measures related to vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR), divided attention, cervical spine and the dynamic balance was done before and after the concussion. The criteria used to assess VOR were dynamic visual acuity (DVA) and head thrust test. Divided attention and Dynamic balance were measured via Walking While Talking (WWTT) test and Functional Gait Assessment (FGA) respectively. The cervical spine was assessed via measures like head perturbation test, cervical flexor endurance test (CFE), joint position error, anterolateral strength and cervical flexion-rotation test.

Seventy-one players completed at least one test before and four days post-concussion. Cervical spine measures were assessed using the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test after Bonferroni corrections (α=0.00625).  The measures of cervical spine got worse considerably as compared to baseline, head perturbation test and anterolateral neck strength ( p<0.00001; p<0.001 and p <0.0001 respectively). Compared to the preseason, time taken to complete a complex task of divided attention relative to normal walking speed was faster. No change was noticed after the concussion in measures of dynamic balance or VOR. However, further analysis is required to discover the mechanism behind these changes.