ArticleAlzheimer's research & therapy2023
Neuropsychological test performance of former American football players.
Article in Alzheimer's research & therapy, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Cognitive Impairment and Dementia-Related Diagnoses in Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Cognitive and Behavioral Functioning in Female Former Soccer Players: Results from the Head Impact and Trauma Surveillance Study (HITSS).Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Neuropsychological Profile of Autopsy-Confirmed Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Regional ventricular enlargement as an in vivo biomarker of cumulative biomechanical neurodegeneration in former American football players.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Demographic and Football-Related Characteristics Associated with Objective Cognitive Performance in Former NFL Players with a Normative Sample Comparison: An NFL-LONG Study.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Article
- Cognitive, biomarker, and neuroimaging indices associated with traumatic encephalopathy syndrome across two independent athlete cohorts.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2026Article
- Cognitive, biomarker, and neuroimaging indices associated with traumatic encephalopathy syndrome across two independent athlete cohorts.Research square · 2026Article
- Inflammation, Limbic White Matter Microstructure, and Clinical Symptoms in Retired American Football Players With Repetitive Head Impacts.Neurology · 2026Article
- Cognitive and Neuropsychiatric Function in Former American Football Players.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Factors associated with subjective cognitive complaints in former American football players.Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS · 2026Article
- CTE neuropathology alone is associated with dementia and cognitive symptoms.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Dose-dependent white matter changes associated with repetitive head impacts in former American football players.Brain communications · 2026Article
- Chronic traumatic encephalopathy: State-of-the-science update and narrative review.The Clinical neuropsychologist · 2025Review
- Dispersion-based cognitive intra-individual variability in former American football players: Association with traumatic encephalopathy syndrome, repetitive head impacts, and biomarkers.The Clinical neuropsychologist · 2025Article
- Long-term neurobehavioral and neuroimaging outcomes in athletes with prior concussion(s) and head impact exposure.The Clinical neuropsychologist · 2025Review
- Single- versus two-test criteria for cognitive impairment: associations with CSF and imaging markers in former American football players.The Clinical neuropsychologist · 2025Article
- Article
- A structural haplotype in the 17q21.31 MAPT region is associated with increased risk for chronic traumatic encephalopathy endophenotypes.Cell reports. Medicine · 2025Article
- Article
- Health outcomes of former division I college athletes.Brain injury · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
26 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPatterns of cognitive impairment in former American football players are uncertain because objective neuropsychological data are lacking. This study characterized the neuropsychological test performance of former college and professional football players.
methodsOne hundred seventy male former football players (n=111 professional, n=59 college; 45-74 years) completed a neuropsychological test battery. Raw scores were converted to T-scores using age, sex, and education-adjusted normative data. A T-score ≤ 35 defined impairment. A domain was impaired if 2+ scores fell in the impaired range except for the language and visuospatial domains due to the limited number of tests.
resultsMost football players had subjective cognitive concerns. On testing, rates of impairments were greatest for memory (21.2% two tests impaired), especially for recall of unstructured (44.7%) versus structured verbal stimuli (18.8%); 51.8% had one test impaired. 7.1% evidenced impaired executive functions; however, 20.6% had impaired Trail Making Test B. 12.1% evidenced impairments in the attention, visual scanning, and psychomotor speed domain with frequent impairments on Trail Making Test A (18.8%). Other common impairments were on measures of language (i.e., Multilingual Naming Test [21.2%], Animal Fluency [17.1%]) and working memory (Number Span Backward [14.7%]). Impairments on our tasks of visuospatial functions were infrequent.
conclusionsIn this sample of former football players (most of whom had subjective cognitive concerns), there were diffuse impairments on neuropsychological testing with verbal memory being the most frequently impaired domain.
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