The Impact of Emotion Regulation on Neurocognitive Physical Task Performance in Female Young Adults with History of Lateral Ankle Sprain

Abstract Lateral ankle sprain (LAS) is among the most common musculoskeletal injuries, producing psychological impairments, such as injury-related fear, which impacts emotion regulation (ER) capabilities. Poorer ER may lead to neuromuscular control deficits due to emotional regulatory neural circuits potentially demanding greater cognitive processing to manage attention. A negative relationship between psychological impairments and neurocognitive functioning has been demonstrated within the ACL- injured population but has yet to be examined in the LAS population. This relationship between measures of ER and neurocognitive physical task performance (NPTP) is critical because poor ER insinuates the individual is potentially less attentive to real-time feedback, resulting in injury/re-injury. This proposal will compare NPTP and ER between females with history of LAS and healthy controls and determine the relationship between ER and NPTP in females with LAS history. Participants will complete self-reported assessments and physiological measures of injury-related fear and anxiety and perform neurocognitive physical tasks. We hypothesize that participants with poorer ER and increased injury-related fear and anxiety will exhibit poorer NPTP. It is pertinent to investigate the underlying mechanisms responsible for psychological impairments being expressed via PROs so that healthcare providers may more appropriately intervene.