Abnormalities in motor-control behavior, which have been with concussion and
head acceleration events (HAE), can be quantified using virtual reality (VR)
technologies. Motor-control behavior has been consistently mapped to the
brain's somatomotor network (SM) using both structural (sMRI) and functional
MRI (fMRI). However, no studies habe integrated HAE, motor-control behavior,
sMRI and fMRI measures. Here, brain networks important for motor-control were
hypothesized to show changes in tractography-based diffusion weighted imaging
[difference in fractional anisotropy (dFA)] and resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI)
measures in collegiate American football players across the season, and that
these measures would relate to VR-based motor-control. We firther tested if
nine inflammation-related miRNAs were associated with
behavior-structure-function variables. Using permutation-based mediation and
moderation methods, we found that across-season dFA from the SM structural
connectome (SM-dFA) mediated the relationship between across-season VR-based
Sensory-motor Reactivity (dSR) and rs-fMRI SM fingerprint similarity (p = 0.007
and Teff = 47%). The interaction between dSR and SM-dFA also predicted (pF =
0.036, pbeta3 = 0.058) across-season levels of dmiRNA-30d through
permutation-based moderation analysis. These results suggest (1) that
motor-control is in a feedback relationship with brain structure and function,
(2) behavior-structure-function can be connected to HAE, and (3)
behavior-structure might predict molecular biology measures.Comment: 62 pages, 4 figures, 2 table