From: The Effects of Anticipation and Visual and Sensory Performance on Concussion Risk in Sport: A Review
 | Participants | Assessments | Relationships between visual and sensory performance and head impacts | Findings | Limitations | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  | Visual and sensory measure | Linear head acceleration | Rotational head acceleration | HIT severity profile | Head impact frequency |  |  | |
 Harpham et al. [57] | 38 Div I college American Football players (20.4 ± 1.4 years; 190.2 ± 6.7 cm; 109.3 ± 17.8 kg) | Nike SPARQ sensory station Head Impact Telemetry system General linear mixed models to test relationship between visual performance and impact severity | Visual clarity (SVA) Contrast sensitivity Depth perception Near-far quickness Target capture (DVA) Perception span Eye-hand coordination Go/No go decision making Reaction time | – ↓ Risk ↓ Risk ↓ Risk – – ↓ Risk ↓ Risk | – – – ↓ Risk ↓ Risk ↓ Risk ↓ Risk ↓ Risk ↓ Risk | N/A | N/A | High performers on certain assessments were at lower risk of concussion | Small convenience sample: various player positions, single team, 1 playing season Arbitrary cut-offs for ‘high’ and ‘low’ performers on Nike SPARQ station |
 Schmidt et al. [58] | 37 male high school American Football players (16.59 ± 0.89 years; 180.35 ± 6.39 cm; 87.18 ± 19.03 kg) | Nike SPARQ sensory station Head Impact Telemetry Assessed odd ratios for sustaining moderate and severe head impacts | Visual clarity (SVA) Contrast sensitivity Depth perception Near-far quickness Target capture (DVA) Perception span Eye-hand coordination Go/No go decision making Reaction time | – – – – – – – – ↑ Odds2 | – – – – – – – – ↑ Odds2 | – – – ↑ Odds1 – – – – ↑ Odds1 | N/A | Using a median split to classify high and low performers, higher performers did not reduce the odds of sustaining high-magnitude impacts | Small convenience sample: various player positions, single team, 1 playing season Arbitrary cut-offs for ‘high’ and ‘low’ performers on Nike SPARQ station |
 Kiefer et al. [53] | 12 male high school ice hockey players (16.50 ± 1.17 years; 177.79 ± 6.83 cm; 70.32 ± 7.19 kg) | Oculomotor performance Head acceleration 3 tasks: - Prosaccade task - Self-paced saccade task - Smooth pursuit task | Prosaccade latency Prosaccade latency variability Self-paced saccade velocity Self-paced saccade initial error Medium-speed smooth pursuit latency Medium-speed smooth pursuit gaze velocity variability Fast-speed smooth pursuit gaze velocity variability | N/A | N/A | N/A | – ↓ Risk ↑ Risk – – ↓ Risk – | More variable oculomotor reaction time, faster saccadic eye motion and more variable gaze velocity when following a predictable target trajectory were related to an increased risk of head impacts Higher variability of saccade latency and smooth pursuit tracking may indicate a lack of attention to task-relevant visual cues necessary to avoid collisions There were no changes in concussion risk when accounting for accuracy of the self-paced saccade task | Small convenience sample: various player positions, single team, 1 playing season Combination of anticipated and unanticipated hits analysed; no analysis of whether the impact was anticipated or not |