Thomas M. Talavage1,2, Evan L. Breedlove2,
Katherine E. Morigaki3, Meghan E. Robinson2, Ruwan D.
Ranaweera1, Eric A. Nauman2,4, Larry J. Leverenz3
1School of Electrical &
Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States; 2Weldon
School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN,
United States; 3Department of Health & Kinesiology, Purdue
University, West Lafayette, IN, United States; 4School of
Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States
Concussion in sport has received much recent attention. For two years we have studied high school football players to elucidate consequences of head collisions on brain health. We have observed a new group of impaired players who do not present typical clinical signs of concussion, but can be detected with fMRI. This impairment is correlated with number of blows to the head. We present a case study of two players in our study, whose (non-)alterations in technique appear to correlate with assessment of brain health, suggesting that reducing contact to the head can mitigate brain injury.
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