Rotational Acceleration and Velocity Associated With Concussion in Humans

Kinematic parameters of the head are used to predict brain injury because they are thought to be indicative of the inertial response of the brain. Although all injury metrics used to predict head injury in industry are based on linear acceleration, brain injury is widely believed to be caused by the complex interaction between linear and angular kinematics. Previous research investigating angular kinematics have focused on animal models, where data cannot be directly applied to humans [1, 2]. Optimally, these data would be derived from humans. There are an estimated 1.6 to 3.8 million sports-related occurring annually in the United States [3]. Football’s high incidence of concussion provides a unique opportunity to collect biomechanical data to characterize this injury. By instrumenting and observing a population that is at high risk for concussion (football players), data characterizing concussion can be collected in a natural and ethically sound manner. The objective of this study was to estimate the angular kinematics of the head associated with concussion using data collected from human volunteers.