Concussion knowledge and attitudes amongst Stellenbosch University hostel rugby players

Background: Concussion occurs more frequently in contact sports, such as rugby, and is furthermore not fully recognised during play. It is also underreported in the literature, to medical personnel, or to coaches.Objectives: The objective of this study was to describe the knowledge about and attitudes towards concussion by Stellenbosch University hostel rugby players.Methods: The study focussed on gathering quantitative information through implementing a cross-sectional study design. One hundred and eighty Stellenbosch University hostel rugby players completed the modified Rosenbaum Concussion Knowledge and Attitudes Survey - Student Version (RoCKAS-ST). The RoCKAS-ST questionnaire is divided into three parts, namely, the evaluation of the Concussion Knowledge Index (CKI) and Concussion Attitudes Index (CAI), and a 16-symptom checklist.Results: The participants scored on average 75% in the CKI and 81% in the CAI. The correlation between CKI and CAI was r=0.14 which is considered a weak positive correlation.Discussion: The participants demonstrated sufficient knowledge of concussion and thus a safer attitude towards concussion. There were some concerning factors from the knowledge of the concussion questions and the symptoms that may have an effect on attitudes towards concussion.Conclusion: The study revealed that Stellenbosch University hostel rugby players have sufficient knowledge of what constitutes concussion, as well as the necessity of having safe attitude towards it. However, a small number of participants showed that they still may lack knowledge in certain areas concerning concussion.Keywords: head injuries; hostel league; university level rugby; surve

Retinotopic remapping of the visual system in deaf adults

Sound is a vital cue in helping hearing people orient their gaze and attention towards events outside their central line of sight, especially in the far periphery, where vision is poor. Without sound cues, deaf individuals must rely on vision as an ‘early warning system’ for peripheral events, and in fact numerous behavioural studies demonstrate that deaf adults have superior visual sensitivity, particularly to far peripheral stimuli. We asked whether an increased demand on peripheral vision throughout development might be reflected in early visual brain structures. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we mapped visual field representations in 16 early, profoundly deaf adults and 16 hearing age-matched controls. To target the far periphery, we used wide-field retinotopic mapping stimuli to map visual field eccentricity out to 72°, well beyond conventional mapping studies. Deaf individuals exhibited a larger representation of the far peripheral visual field in both the primary visual cortex and the lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus. Importantly, this was not due to a total expansion of the visual map, as there was no difference between groups in overall size of either structure, but a smaller representation of the central visual field in the deaf group, suggesting a redistribution of neural resources. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that the demands placed on vision due to lifelong hearing loss can sculpt visual maps at the first level of inputs from the retina, increasing neural resources for processing stimuli in the far peripheral visual field