Association of Risk-Taking Behaviors, Vestibular Provocation and Action Boundary Perception Following Sport-Related Concussion in Adolescents

Background/Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between risk-taking behaviors, vestibular symptoms/impairment and perception-action coupling behavior in recently concussed adolescents. Methods: This study utilized a cross-sectional design to evaluate the early effects of concussion on 12-18-year-old adolescents (n = 47) recruited from a concussion specialty clinic at their presenting clinical appointment. The Perception-Action Coupling Task (PACT) was used to assess action boundary perception by evaluating the participant's ability to quickly and accurately determine whether a virtual "ball" fits in a virtual "hole". Accuracy, response time and inverse efficiency were evaluated at the 0.8 and 1.2 ratios of ball-hole pairings, where 0.8 indicates the ball was slightly smaller than the hole and 1.2 indicates the ball was slightly larger than the hole. The Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART) is a computerized test which measures risk-taking behavior by "pumping" up a balloon. Each pump provides a small amount of virtual money into their bank; the goal is to make as much money as possible without popping the virtual balloon. The Vestibular Ocular Motor Screening (VOMS) tool is a brief screening tool designed to identify ocular or vestibular dysfunction following sport-related concussion, where horizontal/vertical vestibular ocular reflex (VOR) and visual motion sensitivity (VMS) are the primary vestibular outcomes. Pearson correlation matrices were developed to evaluate the association between BART, VOMS and PACT outcomes within the study cohort of concussed adolescents. Results: PACT inverse efficiency at the 1.2 ball-hole ratio was significantly correlated with all three VOMS outcomes (r = 0.33-0.37). The standard deviation of pump reaction time during BART was significantly correlated with accuracy (r = -0.47) and inverse efficiency (r = 0.42) at the 1.2 ratio. The standard deviation of the total number of pumps during BART was significantly correlated with PACT response time at the 1.2 ratio (r = 0.34). Horizontal VOR correlated with balloons collected (r = -0.30) and balloons popped (r = -0.30). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that risk-taking behaviors and vestibular symptoms/impairment are associated with worse action boundary perception in adolescents following concussion. This relationship is more pronounced in male adolescents than females.