Fig. 2

Analysis of global white and gray matter susceptibility values. A Mean control QSM image in study template space. Colorbar indicates susceptibility values in ppm. B Map of coefficient of variability. C Masks of global white (red, χ < − 0.03 ppm) and gray (orange, χ > 0.05 ppm) matter were generated by thresholding reliable QSM values (i.e. those voxels with coefficient of variability < 0.8) from the mean control image. D Two-way MANOVA revealed a significant effect of injury (p = 0.044, *) with post-hoc comparisons showing that SRC athletes had significantly increased susceptibility in the global white matter (Bonferroni corrected p = 0.020). QSM = quantitative susceptibility mapping, SRC = sports related concussion