Special Issue on Concussion Biomechanics in Football
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Annals of Biomedical Engineering (Ó 2020) https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-020-02653-3
Editorial
Special Issue on Concussion Biomechanics in Football ()
This special issue is focused on the biomechanics of concussion in football. These papers are timely given increased public awareness concerning concussions in recent years, which has led to a push for more research in the area. Repetitive head impact exposure leading to long-term neurocognitive deficits is particularly concerning, with evidence for poorer outcomes associated with longer exposure.10 The study of concussion in football has broad applications both within the sport as well as more general areas of impact protection. Player safety can be improved through rule and practice structure changes informed by analysis of athlete head impact exposure. Improvements in helmets and other safety equipment can be guided by laboratory and on-field evaluations. Fundamental injury mechanisms and brain injury tolerance can be translated to enhanced safety for other sports and recreational activities, automotive environments, and military personnel. This special issue will highlight the most recent advances in football concussion biomechanics research including analysis of real-world impacts, new head impact sensor technologies, and laboratory evaluation of helmets. The biomechanics of on-field head impacts have been analyzed through reconstructions of videorecorded impacts and wearable head impact sensors. Video recordings of National Football League (NFL) games were used to reconstruct concussive or severe impacts at the professional level.11 The videos were analyzed for pre-impact velocity and location, and impacts were recreated in the lab with anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs). The results of the reconstructions provided average linear and rotational head accelerations for concussed players as well as risk functions based on head kinematics and head injury metrics. More recently, the NFL reconstructions were reanalyzed due to inconsistencies in the original instrumentation, resulting in error in the head kinematics of concussed players.16 Wearable head impact sensors have been used to measure head impact kinematics in football since the early 1960s.12 Helmet-mounted sensors have been used to collect a large dataset of head impacts to determine head impact exposure and concussion biomechanics in
collegiate and high school football players.3,4,18 Analysis of head impact exposure during different drills and event types can inform rule and practice structure changes to improve player safety.1,17 These data have also been used to evaluate concussion tolerance and risk in football players, with recent work showing that tolerance varies on an individual basis and may have a number of underlying factors.14 There are limitations and advantages to both laboratory reconstructions and wearable sensors for studying real-world head impact biomechanics. Laboratory grade instrumentation for reconstructions is highly accurate, but the impact conditions are not identical to what occ
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