Table 6.

Spearman's Rank Correlation (r_S) Between WMCs and Various Characteristics in Fighters (n = 19)

Characteristic	WMCs with 3T MRI		WMCs with 7T MRI
	rS	p value	rS	p value
Reader 1
Presence of neurofilament light proteina	–0.15	0.589	–0.05	0.845
Verbal memory score	–0.12	0.635	0.10	0.689
Psychomotor speed score	–0.25	0.306	–0.08	0.741
Reaction time	0.15	0.550	0.14	0.578
Patient Health Questionnaire score	0.05	0.827	0.06	0.802
Barratt Impulsiveness Scale score	0.16	0.500	0.15	0.548
No. of professional boxing fights	0.34	0.153	0.27	0.257
No. of professional MMA fights	–0.06	0.821	–0.06	0.808
Reader 2
Presence of neurofilament light proteina	–0.02	0.931	0.03	0.922
Verbal memory score	0.04	0.874	0.03	0.889
Psychomotor speed score	–0.15	0.530	–0.03	0.902
Reaction time	0.06	0.809	0.14	0.561
Patient Health Questionnaire score	0.14	0.580	0.08	0.736
Barratt Impulsiveness Scale score	0.06	0.808	0.03	0.914
No. of professional boxing fights	0.21	0.386	0.25	0.293
No. of professional MMA fights	0.05	0.834	–0.04	0.855

^a Only 16 fighters underwent the neurofilament light protein test.

WMCs, white matter changes; MMA, mixed martial arts; T, Tesla; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging.