ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews two models of neuropsychological assessment that involve the large-scale participation of collegiate and high school athletes. It focuses on the utilization of neuropsychological testing protocols in high school and college athletics. High school and collegiate at-risk athletes are typically administered measured by computerized neuropsychological testing to establish a “baseline” level of neurocognitive functioning. Specifically, high school athletes performed significantly worse than age-matched controls at 7 days post-injury. College athletes, despite apparently suffering more severe in-season concussions, displayed commensurate performance with matched-control subjects by day 3 after concussion. A variant of the Pittsburgh Steelers Neuropsychological Test Battery was utilized and several retrospective analyses were conducted examining the effects of prior concussions on baseline cognitive performance. To date, there have been only a few neuropsychological studies of high school athletes and most of these studies have been conducted through the University of Pittsburgh Sports Medicine Concussion Program.
