Non-American Equestrian Researchers Develop Concussion Readiness Test for Athletes

Sports medicine is a specialized branch of medicine dedicated to the health of players and athletes. Doctors and researchers working in the field constantly try to develop new techniques for the well-being of players. Recent new research has revealed something pivotal for sports persons who have suffered a concussion. Athletes in equestrian sports and those such as American football are more prone to such injuries. The study has come to a conclusion that micro-movements of the brain could help find out if and when an athlete with a head injury should return to the game.

Horsetalk reports from a research paper about the new brain biometrics study of a sports person after he or she has been through a head injury. The research, done by professionals at the University of South Australia in partnership with the University of California San Francisco, has made a breakthrough in sports medicine.

Findings of the study on Brain Micro-movements 

The journal JAMA Network Open has published important research in the field of head or brain injury. It says that micro-movements of the brain, which are also called head pulses, could help detect the consequence of a concussion. The scientists involved in the study used a specially made headset to monitor the head pulse biometrics. The sample size for the study was 101 amateur male and female players in South Australia from the Australian Rules Football. The study concluded brain abnormalities in 81% of the similarly injured players.

What does this mean? The conclusion informs doctors and sports managers that sports persons who have been hurt on their head could have a sustained injury even post recovery. This could be further aggravated by unattended physical stress by the athlete or his/her return to play too soon.

Road to recovery for equestrian athletes with concussion

Athletes typically recovered from the concussion injury after about a fortnight. However, it took about three-four weeks for other sports persons to return to a head pulse that was normal. Moreover, if the injury has been aggravated internally, there are usually no symptoms. Hence, many players, athletes or equestrian riders return to the field within 12 days after a concussion.

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“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,” said Kevin Norton, Professor of Exercise Science at the University of South Australia.

“Traumatic brain injury inflicts more than 60 million people every year, with a third of these being sports-related,” he said. “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,” added Norton.

The football concussion recovery protocols in Australia include 24 to 48 hours of complete physical as well as cognitive rest for the athlete. In the recovery period, an athlete will go through slow individual training and only then move into training with the team again. Thus, this test is surely going to be beneficial and might change the injury dynamics in equestrian and other sports in years to come.

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