HJAR Jul/Aug 2024

16 JUL / AUG 2024 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS RESULTS Demographic Characteristics A total of 275 participants (205 football players and 70 noncontact athletes in the control group) were included in this study. The sample consisted of all males: 2 (1%) were American Indian or Alaska Native; 9 (3%) were Asian; 9 (3%) were Black or Afri- can American; 2 (1%) were multiracial; and 253 (92%) were White. A total of 23 partici- pants (8%) were Latino or Hispanic, and 252 (92%) were not Latino or Hispanic. Demo- graphics are summarized in Table 1. All sam- ples contributed to the cortical structure analysis. For RS-fMRI analysis, data from 56 football participants and 11 controls were excluded due to head motion exceeding a frame-wise displacement of 3.0 mm. As a result, a total of 208 participants (149 foot- ball players and 59 in the control group) contributed to the RS-fMRI analyses. Group Differences in Cortical Structure Relative to the control group, the foot- ball group showed significant cortical thin- ning in various brain regions in both hemi- spheres, such as precentral gyrus, lateral occipital gyrus, lingual gyrus, and middle or superior frontal gyrus (eg, right precen- tral gyrus: t =−2.24; P =.01; left superior fron- tal gyrus: −2.42; P =.002) (Figure 1A). Con- versely, there was a notable thickening in the anterior and posterior cingulate cortex in the football group relative to controls (eg, left posterior cingulate cortex: t =2.28; P =.01; right caudal anterior cingulate cortex 3.01; P =.001). A significantly greater (deeper) sulcal depth was observed in widespread brain regions of the football group compared with controls, such as the cingulate cor- tex, precentral gyrus, and frontotemporal regions (eg, right inferior parietal lobule: t =2.20; P =.004; right caudal anterior cingu- late cortex: 4.30; P  <.001) (Figure 1B). Despite small clusters, there were 4 regions showing lesser (shallower) sulcal depth in the foot- ball group, including left temporal pole, superior parietal lobule, pericalcarine gyrus, and lateral occipital gyrus (eg, left perical- carine gyrus: t =−2.13; P =.01; left temporal pole: 3.40; P =.01). Compared with the control group, the football group showed greater gyrifica- tion in many regions in both hemispheres, such as the cingulate cortex, frontoparietal regions, precuneus, and lingual gyrus (eg, left lingual gyrus: t =2.44; P =.01; right pos- terior cingulate cortex: t =3.44; P  < .001), whereas lesser gyrification was observed in the pericalcarine, superior temporal gyrus, parsobitalis gyrus, and caudal anterior cin- gulate cortex (eg, left superior temporal gyrus: t =−2.38; P = .004; left pericalcarine gyrus: −3.15; P  < .001) (Figure 1C). Detailed information for each brain region is listed in Table 2. Group Differences in ALFF and ReHo Significantly lower ALFF was detected in large areas of the frontal regions and cin- gulate cortex in the football group relative to the control group, such as left middle, superior, and triangular frontal gyri; left precentral gyrus; middle and anterior cin- gulate cortex; and bilateral insula ( t =−3.66 to −4.92; P  <.01) (Figure 2A, 2B). Conversely, significantly higher ALFF was noted in the left medial occipital regions of the football group, including the lingual gyrus ( t =3.20; P  <.01) and calcarine sulcus ( t =3.28; P  <.01). Similar to ALFF, there was a signifi- cantly higher ReHo in the occipitotemporal regions of the football group relative to the Group difference was assessed for cortical thickness (A), sulcal depth (B), and gyrification (C).The multiple comparison correction was used with nonparametric permutations (5000 permutations) and the threshold-free cluster enhancement correction after 5000 permutations. Red indicates that the football group is higher compared with the control group. Blue indicates that the football group is lower compared with the control group.