Is there a limit to the amount of impact a football player’s head can handle before the player suffers a concussion?
The answer is yes … and no, say researchers at UNC. High-tech helmets worn by some UNC football players over the 2004 to 2006 seasons yielded new data challenging theories about these mild brain injuries.
The UNC study shows that hits and heads are as individual as the players themselves. Researchers advise against establishing a one-size-fits-all rule for evaluating concussions.
Using accelerometers embedded in helmets, researchers measured the amount of g-force players’ heads experienced at impact. The system is called HITS, or Head Impact Telemetry System.
In football, a hit can easily jerk the head, for milliseconds, at 50g, and hits above 100g are common.
The UNC studies showed that some players suffered concussions at little more than 60g, while others sustained hits creating more than 90g and showed no signs of concussions. It was previously suggested that forces above 75g would likely result in a concussion, but these new results call into question that finding.
“Football players receive concussions by impacts to the head that occur at a wide range of magnitudes, and [concussions] all appear to be largely independent of impact magnitude and location,†said Kevin Guskiewicz, Ph.D., senior author on the papers.
Guskiewicz said the study is a first step toward better understanding sports-related concussion.
—UNC News Services