? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Football head injuries involve significant forces and can result in mild to severe traumatic brain injuries. While this has received increasing attention at the professional and collegiate levels, there is less data available for the millions of participants in high school leagues (14-18 years old) during this time of rapid brain development. The purpose of this study is to relate information about cumulative head impact exposure over a season of high school football with neurocognitive and neuroimaging data to determine the effects of sub-concussive impacts on the brain. All elements of this study focus on the objective to increase understanding of pediatric mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) and prospectively collect biomechanical, imaging, functional, and computational modeling data on a scale never before attempted in adolescents involved in contact sports. This project integrates neuroinformatics work and the computational modeling techniques developed by Drs. Whitlow, Maldjian and Stitzel at Wake Forest University Health Sciences.

R01NS091602

2016-07-01

2021-06-30