News & Studies

The Ivy League adopted groundbreaking new rules for the 2011 football season intended to lower the risk of concussion and the number subconcussive hits, including reducing to two the number of full-contact, in-season practices allowed per week. New research suggests that such repeated hits may cause more brain damage than blows resulting in diagnosed concussions.  

Scores on a test commonly used to assess concussions on the sport sideline vary by an athlete's gender and concussion history, reports a new study.  Establishing an individual baseline for each youth athlete in contact and collision sports is therefore critical to proper management of a subsequent concussion and the timing for safe return to play.

A computerized neuropsychological test commonly used to evaluate sports-related concussions misclassified up to 29 percent of healthy participants in a recent test by a University of Texas at Arlington kinesiology researcher.

The National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE) has awarded $1.1 million in research grants to advance the science of sports medicine - specifically related to concussion.

College-age athletes who had previously suffered a concussion performed more poorly on tests for verbal memory than those who had not, according to a new study presented at the 58th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine and 2nd World Congress on Exercise is Medicine® in June 2011.

An overwhelming majority of both athletes returning to the classroom after a concussion and their parents are "very concerned" that academic performance will be negatively affected, finds a new survey.  Majorities of both athletes and parents surveyed called for schools to do more to support the recovery of students from concussions through academic accommodations, such as extra time to complete tasks, reduced homework, and rest breaks. 

The National Academy of Neuropsychology (NAN) and National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) have created a 12-minute educational video titled "Concussions in Hockey: Signs, Symptoms and Playing Safe" which is available for free download online.

A test for disturbed eye movements has the potential to provide rapid and accurate sideline screening for concussion on the sports sideline, says a new study in the journal Neurology. The King-Devick (K-D) test measuring the speed of rapid number naming is an accurate and reliable method for identifying athletes who should be removed from a game or practice for further evaluation, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found.

Concussion in high school sports are increasing at a 15% annual rate, finds a new study. Consistent with previous studies, football accounted for more than half of all concussions and a concussion rate nearly double the rate for girls' soccer, the sport with the next highest rate. Concussion rates increased across all 12 sports studied.  Although the degree of change varied, ranging from an average annual increase of 8% for football to 27% for wrestling, Girls had a higher rate of concussion that that of boys in those sports (soccer, basketball, baseball/softball) where the boys' and girls' games are essentially the same.