If it is true that high achievers and girls seem to be particularly affected by PCS, this is interesting. (If anyone has any data on that, please pass it on.)

I think that the first scientific explanation to consider would naturally be that those groups are somehow more affected by the condition. By this I do not mean that they just make more of a fuss over it. I actually think that they could be worse off.

The high achiever might have the sort of mind that is particularly vulnerable to trauma. For instance, neurological pathways involving the neurotransmitter glutamate, which is involved in memory, might be more active in high achievers. That would mean that there is overall a greater concentration of glutamate in their brains. When a trauma occurs, glutamate is released and, being toxic, might cause at least part of the physiological damage of PCS. That would be more in people with greater amounts of it, ie high achievers. This would mean that being a high achiever might mean a greater amount of damage in the brain when it is traumatized.

In a similar way, girls might be more susceptible than boys to brain trauma. Their heads on average weigh less than those of boys. So, for a given impact, girls heads would be accelerated more causing greater damage.

These reasons might not be the whole explanation but I think that they are more plausible than having to say that differences in recovery rates are due to psychological differences.

If anyone has any hard data on such differences in recovery rates, please pass it on. Thanks.

CS