Mouthpiece for mTBI Detection during Adolescent Contact and Collision Sports

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Project Summary/Abstract There is a need for new inexpensive tools to discover potential concussive events or mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBIs) on the playing field. As we discover more about the long term effects of concussions, sub- concussive blows, and the importance of rest following a concussive event, the need for tools to identify concussions is becoming an increasing public concern. Many of these nominally “mild” injuries lead to poor neurological outcomes that adversely affect an individual's quality of life – i.e. second impact syndrome, post concussion syndrome, and long lasting neurocognitive deficits such as learning disabilities, memory problems, and emotional or behavioral changes. Despite increasing public awareness of this issue, TBIs are difficult to identify as athletes commonly hide the signs and symptoms, only 10% of cases result in loss of consciousness, and other mTBI signs and symptoms may only last for fifteen minutes or fewer. Recognition of TBI's during sports activities is very important because individuals with TBI's are much more vulnerable, given further impacts, to more severe brain injury until they are healed. Additionally, while recent research indicates that younger athletes are more likely to sustain an mTBI and are more vulnerable to long term effects, there is little actual data linking clinical outcomes with biomechanical assessment for pre-teens and adolescents. Since there is currently no helmet or safety gear that is protective against concussion during athletics, many resources are being put into concussion education and risk management. Risk management is currently centered on the macro scale with strict return to play guidelines and league rules or state laws that prohibit full contact practices more than three times a week for example. The proposed solution uses a unique design to provide a mouthpiece with better accuracy and/or lower cost than currently available commercial products that can be used in all sports. The solution will provide a sideline alert of a potential concussion for further clinical evaluation and head impact dosimetry. The research team assembled for this project includes a commercialization partner with current custom mouthpiece products and deep industry ties, a successful engineering team, and a research group that has performed previous mouthpiece impact sensor studies.