Physical Therapy Faculty Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-2026
Abstract
Objectives: Neurocognitive function is vital in sports, but evidence supporting neurocognitive reaction testing in upper extremity return-to-sport testing is limited. This study's purpose was to quantify measurement properties of upper extremity reactive testing in collegiate athletes, hypothesizing acceptable measurement properties for clinical use.
Design: Cross-Sectional Study.
Setting: Collegiate athletics.
Participants: Sixty-three healthy athletes (25 females, age = 20.8 ± 1.6 years, BMI = 25.6 ± 2.6 kg/m2; 38 males, age = 20.8 ± 1.6, BMI = 25.7 ± 2.6 kg/m2).
Main outcome measure(s): Successful touches and average reaction time on the Upper Extremity Reactive Closed Kinetic Chain Test (UERCKCT) and Upper Extremity Reactive Open Kinetic Chain Test (UEROKCT); successful touches on the Closed Kinetic Chain Upper Extremity Stability Test (CKCUEST).
Results: Reliability of UERCKCT and UEROKCT was good-to-excellent (ICC3,1 = 0.75-0.94), except for one condition. UERCKCT and UEROKCT touches demonstrated moderate-to-large correlation with CKCUEST (r = 0.40-0.67, p < 0.01) except for one condition. UERCKCT and UEROKCT reaction time demonstrated moderate-to-large correlation with CKCUEST (r = -0.38 to -0.67, p < 0.01) except for one condition. UEROKCT nondominant/dominant ratios were 98.2-103.2%% (p > 0.05).
Conclusions: The UERCKCT and UEROKCT demonstrated good-to-excellent reliability and demonstrated convergent validity with an established proactive test. UEROKCT demonstrates symmetrical limb performance. This is the first study to show acceptable reliability and preliminary convergent validity of these tests for clinical assessment of neurocognitive function.
Recommended Citation
Gauthier, M. L., Pontillo, M., & Davies, G. J. (2026). Reliability and validity of upper extremity neurocognitive reactive tests in collegiate athletes. Physical Therapy in Sport: Official Journal of the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Sports Medicine, 82, 101992-101992. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ptsp.2026.101992
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Physical Therapy in Sport
DOI
10.1016/j.ptsp.2026.101992
Comments
Copyright © 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).