Novel brain biometrics could help inform whether an athlete is ready to return to play following a concussion, according to new research from the University of South Australia.
Conducted in partnership with the University of California San Francisco (UCFC), researchers found that changes in micromovements of the brain – termed ‘headpulses’ – could detect the lasting impacts of a concussion.
Using a custom-designed headset* to evaluate headpulse biometrics among 101 amateur male and female Australian Rules Football players in South Australia, researchers identified brain abnormalities in 81% of players inflicted by concussion, signalling sustained injury beyond expected recovery times.
These headpulse alterations lasted 14 days beyond concussion symptoms and were exacerbated by return-to-play or unsupervised physical activity.
UniSA Professor of Exercise Science Kevin Norton says that headpulse measures could complement current return-to-play protocols.
“Traumatic brain injury inflicts more than 60 million people every year, with a third of these being sports-related,” Prof Norton says.
“While we know that Australia’s sports sector takes concussions seriously – via considered return-to-play protocols – we also know that objective measures of concussion recovery are not fully established.
“In this research, we used headpulses – a normal measure of brain ‘wobble’ aligned with each heartbeat – to assess any changes in frequency resulting from a concussion.
“We discovered that almost all players who received a concussion had a ‘disconnect’ between their symptoms and the headpulse, such that even when the players said they felt good, the headpulse still showed evidence of brain injury.”
