(Press-News.org) CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (AUGUST 4, 2015). Researchers at the University of Virginia (UVa) examined the number and severity of subconcussive head impacts sustained by college football players over an entire season during practices and games. The researchers found that the number of head impacts varied depending on the intensity of the activity. Findings in this case are reported and discussed in "Practice type effects on head impact in collegiate football," by Bryson B. Reynolds and colleagues, published today online, ahead of print, in the Journal of Neurosurgery.
The researchers examined head impacts sustained by UVa football players during 10 helmet-only practices, 29 shell (also known as half-pad) practices, and 27 full-pad practices, as well as during 12 games. The three categories of practices are important because, as the authors state, "the level of protective equipment worn is generally a good proxy measure for the intensity of a practice." Under his helmet, each player wore an impact-sensing patch (xPatch®) over his left or right mastoid process. The patch measured the linear and rotational acceleration of each head impact. The researchers collected data on the number of impacts, the average severity of impacts, and the head impact burden for each type of practice and for games. In all, 890 instances of head impact in16 players were examined.
There were significant differences in the mean number of head impacts per event (practice session or game) for the various types of activities, with the number increasing according to the intensity of the activity. Thus games had the largest mean number of head impacts, followed by full-pad, shell, and helmet-only practices.
This pattern was also apparent when the researchers examined the cumulative distributions of both linear and rotational acceleration (that is, the impact burden). There again, games had the largest cumulative distribution of both linear and rotational acceleration, followed by full-pad, shell, and helmet-only practices.
The pattern changed with respect to average impact severity. The researchers observed no significant differences between shell practices, full-pad practices, and games. Nevertheless, helmet-only practices had a lower average impact severity than the other activities.
The researchers discuss the fact that citing a general lack of data, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has not established clearly defined rules concerning the intensity of practices or the number of live-contact practices during a season or postseason. Jason Druzgal, MD, PhD, corresponding author of the article, notes that, "The results of the paper are actually very intuitive, but unlike the proactive approach of the NFL, the NCAA has been waiting for data to support their evolving football guidelines and regulations. The results of our study start to provide some of that data." The authors suggest that greater regulation of football practices could reduce the burden of head impact in college football players, while advocating that more research be undertaken to identify the cause and nature of practice type differences.
Dr. Druzgal commented that this study represents the first published use of the xPatch®, manufactured by X2 Biosystems (Seattle and Silicon Valley).
INFORMATION:
Reynolds BB, Patrie J, Henry EJ, Goodkin HP, Broshek DK, Wintermark M, Druzgal TJ: Practice-type effects on head impact in collegiate football. Journal of Neurosurgery, published online, ahead of print, August 4, 2015; DOI: 10.3171/2015.5.JNS15573.
Disclosure: Financial support was provided by a UVa Health System Research Award (T.J.D.), National Institutes of Health Grant No. 2 T32 GM 8328-21 (B.B.R.), and by the UVa Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging (B.B.R., J.P., and T.J.D.). Access to the xPatch® impact sensors was obtained through a research agreement with X2 Biosystems.
For additional information, please contact:
Ms. Jo Ann M. Eliason, Communications Manager
Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group
One Morton Drive, Suite 200, Charlottesville, VA 22903
Email: jaeliason@thejns.org Phone 434-982-1209; Fax 434-924-2702
For 71 years, the Journal of Neurosurgery has been recognized by neurosurgeons and other medical specialists the world over for its authoritative clinical articles, cutting-edge laboratory research papers, renowned case reports, expert technical notes, and more. Each article is rigorously peer reviewed. The Journal of Neurosurgery is published monthly by the JNS Publishing Group, the scholarly journal division of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Other peer-reviewed journals published by the JNS Publishing Group each month include Neurosurgical Focus, the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, and the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics. All four journals can be accessed at http://www.thejns.org.
Founded in 1931 as the Harvey Cushing Society, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) is a scientific and educational association with more than 8,300 members worldwide. The AANS is dedicated to advancing the specialty of neurological surgery in order to provide the highest quality of neurosurgical care to the public. All active members of the AANS are certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Neurosurgery) of Canada or the Mexican Council of Neurological Surgery, AC. Neurological surgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of disorders that affect the entire nervous system, including the brain, spinal column, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. For more information, visit http://www.AANS.org.
August 4, 2015 -- Treating maternal psychiatric disorder with commonly used antidepressants is associated with a lower risk of certain pregnancy complications including preterm birth and delivery by Caesarean section, according to researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Medical Center, and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. However, the medications -- selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs -- resulted in an increased risk of neonatal problems. Findings are published online in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
"To ...
Chestnut Hill, MA (August 4, 2015): It's been said that "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it," but even if you know your own history, that doesn't necessarily help you with self-control. New research published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology shows the effectiveness of memory in improving our everyday self-control decisions depends on what we recall and how easily it comes to mind.
"Despite the common belief that remembering our mistakes will help us make better decisions in the present," says the study's lead author, Hristina Nikolova, Ph.D., an ...
PHILADELPHIA - The roughly nine million Americans who rely on prescription sleeping pills to treat chronic insomnia may be able to get relief from as little as half of the drugs, and may even be helped by taking placebos in the treatment plan, according to new research published today in the journal Sleep Medicine by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Their findings starkly contrast with the standard prescribing practices for chronic insomnia treatment.
The findings, which advocate for a dosing strategy of smaller and fewer ...
Research on alcohol-use disorders consistently shows problem drinking decreases as we age. Also called, "maturing out," these changes generally begin during young adulthood and are partially caused by the roles we take on as we become adults. Now, researchers collaborating between the University of Missouri and Arizona State University have found evidence that marriage can cause dramatic drinking reductions even among people with severe drinking problems. Scientists believe findings could help improve clinical efforts to help these people, inform public health policy changes ...
Here's a quick task: Take a look at the sentences below and decide which is the most effective.
(1) "John threw out the old trash sitting in the kitchen."
(2) "John threw the old trash sitting in the kitchen out."
Either sentence is grammatically acceptable, but you probably found the first one to be more natural. Why? Perhaps because of the placement of the word "out," which seems to fit better in the middle of this word sequence than the end.
In technical terms, the first sentence has a shorter "dependency length" -- a shorter total distance, in words, between ...
To arrange for an interview with a researcher, please contact the Communications staff member identified at the end of each tip. For more information on ORNL and its research and development activities, please refer to one of our media contacts. If you have a general media-related question or comment, you can send it to news@ornl.gov.
CYBERSECURITY - Piranha nets honor ...
Piranha, an award-winning intelligent agent-based technology to analyze text data with unprecedented speed and accuracy, will be showcased at the Smithsonian's Innovation Festival Sept. 26-27. The ...
Many people who are skeptical about vaccinating their children can be convinced to do so, but only if the argument is presented in a certain way, a team of psychologists from UCLA and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reported today. The research appears in the online early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The finding is especially important because the number of measles cases in the U.S. tripled from 2013 to 2014. The disease's re-emergence has been linked to a trend of parents refusing to vaccinate their children.
What ...
Like top musicians, songbirds train from a young age to weed out errors and trim variability from their songs, ultimately becoming consistent and reliable performers. But as with human musicians, even the best are not machines. To learn and improve, the songbird brain needs to shake up its tried-and-true patterns with a healthy dose of creative experimentation. Until now, no one has found a specific mechanism by which this could occur.
Now, researchers at UC San Francisco have discovered a neurological mechanism that could explain how songbirds' neural creativity-generator ...
WASHINGTON (Aug. 3, 2015)--A new analysis of early hominin body size evolution led by a George Washington University professor suggests that the earliest members of the Homo genus (which includes our species, Homo sapiens) may not have been larger than earlier hominin species. As almost all of the hows and whys of human evolution are tied to estimates of body size at particular points in time, these results challenge numerous adaptive hypotheses based around the idea that the origins of Homo coincided with, or were driven by, an increase in body mass.
In "Body Mass ...
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Coaches and trainers strive to keep their players healthy so they can perform at their maximum potentials. Injury restrictions, or limits on athletes' physical activity due to illnesses or injuries, can keep athletes on the bench for a game or even an entire season. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found college football players are more likely to experience injuries during test weeks than during training camp. The effects of academic stress on injury occurrences are even more pronounced among starting players, the researchers found.
"Stress ...
