Linking auditory brain responses to cortical microstructure and sensory behaviors in autism spectrum disorder: a preliminary study.

Team sport athletes are exposed to a rapidly changing and partly unpredictable environment, which is associated with an inherent risk of injury. In football (soccer), changes-of-direction (CODs) are associated with a high risk of non-contact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries, particularly when being performed in response to external stimuli like an opponent (). These unanticipated COD tasks therefore lead to substantial demands on movement control and joint stabilization due to uncertainty and limited preparation time. However, ACL injuries are considered multifactorial events. In addition to biomechanical and cognitive factors, anatomical characteristics, neuromuscular control, and other intrinsic and extrinsic factors contribute to ACL injury risk (). Of note, female athletes exhibit a two- to four-fold higher risk of sustaining an ACL injury compared to their male counterparts, making this population particularly relevant for injury prevention research (). To move safely and achieve optimal sport performance in such cognitively challenging environments, athletes rely on cognitive functions that allow the rapid perception, processing and integration of situation- and task-specific information (, ). These cognitive functions are assumed to differ inter-individually and include for example reaction time, processing speed, and executive functions (, ). Among executive functions, working memory enables the storage and updating of information and, therefore, plays a crucial role in decision-making and the strategic planning of actions (). Beyond their importance for sport performance, inter-individual differences in cognitive function of athletes are associated with the risk of sustaining lower limb injuries, particularly regarding the ACL. A recent systematic review indicated that worse baseline cognitive function, specifically reaction time and working memory, was associated with increased musculoskeletal injury risk in team sports (). In line with this, a case-control study showed that athletes who later sustained an ACL injury had performed significantly worse in a computerized neurocognitive test battery during preseason testing (). Furthermore, biomechanical studies have shown that longer reaction time, reduced processing speed, and impaired visual memory were related to less favorable, injury-related biomechanical patterns during cognitively demanding movement tasks (, ).