IIE - The mechanics of head impacts in football and its relationto brain trauma

全世界有2.65亿人积极参加足球比赛（更常见的是足球或英式足球），所有性别，年龄和技能水平的人都喜欢足球，足球参与与神经退行性疾病风险增加之间的联系近年来成为头条新闻。由格拉斯哥大学与英国足协和英国足协共同开展的FIELD研究显示，前职业足球运动员死于脑部疾病的可能性是同龄人的3.5倍。随着踢足球与脑部疾病风险增加之间的联系得到证实，英国足协在2021年的研究呼吁中概述了新的重点，即回答以下问题：“在FIELD研究中发现的前职业足球运动员神经退行性疾病死亡风险增加的原因是什么？“拟议的研究项目将利用有限元方法（FEM），为人类大脑内部的压力波行为提供新的见解，例如在踢足球时所经历的影响。特别是，爱丁堡大学的isDynamics内部有限元头部模型（FEHM）将进一步开发和验证其压力波响应。将对颅内物质相似接触过程中压力波的界面传播进行初步的数值研究，以更好地了解脑内的动态压力力学。研究结果将应用于isDynamics的内部FEHM，并将使用基于标记的运动捕捉技术对数值模型进行首次验证，该项目的最后阶段将使用经过验证的FEHM来准确地模拟头部撞击，直接代表足球比赛中的头部撞击（如头对球和头对头）。这将提供一个详细的了解大脑的状态期间和立即后的影响，这可能有助于解释足球参与和脑创伤之间的联系。通过使用各种模型，可以理解不同因素对大脑机械应力状态的影响，例如球的类型，球员的年龄和性别。这将用于提供有关谁在足球运动中最有可能遭受脑创伤的详细信息，以及如何减轻脑创伤，从而为足球运动中围绕头部撞击的循证指导战略做出贡献。

With 265 million people actively playing association football (more commonly football or soccer) worldwide, enjoyed by those from all genders, ages and levels of skill, links between football participation and increased risk of neurodegenerative disease have hit the headlines in recent years. The FIELD study, carried out by the University of Glasgow alongisde the FA and PFA, showed that former professional footballers are three and a half times more likely to die of brain disease than the matched population.With a proven link between playing football and increased risk of brain disease, the FA's new focus,as outlined in their 2021 call for research, is to answer the following:"What is the cause of the observed increased risk of death from neurodegenerative disorders in formerprofessional footballers found in the FIELD study?"The proposed research project would utilise the Finite Element Method (FEM) to provide new insight into the behaviour of pressure waves inside the human brain following impacts such as those experienced when playing football. In particular, the University of Edinburgh's isDynamics in-house Finite Element Head Model (FEHM) would be further developed and validated for its pressure wave response. An initial numeical study on interface propagation of pressure waves during like-to-like contact of cranial matter will be carried out, providing a better understanding of dynamic pressure mechanics within the brain. The findings will then be applied to isDynamics' in-house FEHM, and first-of-its-kind validation of the numerical models will be carried out using marker-based motion capture techniques, and supplemented with accelerometer-based mouth guard sensor data.The final stage of the project will be to use the validated FEHM to accurately simulate head impacts directly representative of those experienced in football (such as head-to-ball and head-to-head). This will provide a detailed understanding on the state of the brain during and immediately after impact, which may assist in the explanation of the link between football participation and brain trauma. By using a variety of models the effect of different factors on the mechanical stress state of the brain, such as type of ball, and player age and gender, can be understood. This will be used to provide detail on who is most at risk of brain trauma in football, and how it can be mitigated, resulting in the contribution to an evidence-based strategy for guidance in football surrounding head impacts.