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Eye Tracking: Objective Assessment for Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Youth Athletes (2023-2024)

In children, brain injury is complex and common and a leading source of disability and death. Sports-related concussions in children and adolescents account for 30-60% of all pediatric concussions and affect up to 1.9 million children annually. 

Building on the work of past teams and longstanding community partnerships in the Raleigh-Durham area, this team continued to assess youth athletes with an oculomotor (i.e., eye-tracking) assessment routine and compared these results to in-season documentation of head impact exposure using data from a team-developed earpiece (DASHR) worn by athletes during practices and games. Team members engaged with new participants in addition to following participants from prior years to investigate multi-year and career-specific questions associated with our study.

The team’s work continues to contribute to a longitudinal study through which adolescent athletes have been continuously assessed, in some cases as long as seven years.

Timing

Summer 2023 – Spring 2024

Team Outputs

Peer-reviewed manuscripts in progress

Data analysis to support grant proposals

Categorizing Data Acquisition System for Head Response (DASHR) Head Impact Data with Machine Learning (Poster by Sarah Glomski presented for Graduation with Distinction in Biomedical Engineering)

Changes in Youth Football Athletes’ Oculomotor Task Metrics Across Three High School Seasons of Play (Poster by Derek Pang presented at The 19th Annual Injury Biomechanics Symposium, Vancouver, British Columbia, May 22-24, 2024)

Eye Tracking: Objective Assessment for Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Youth Athletes (Interactive display presented at Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase, Duke University, April 17, 2024)

This Team in the News

The Test and the Tackle: A New Way to Measure Head Injury in Youth Football

Meet the Members of the 2023-2024 Student Advisory Council

See related teams, Eye Tracking: An Objective Assessment for Pediatric mTBI (2024-2025) and Eye Tracking: Objective Assessment for Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Youth Athletes (2022-2023).

 

Image: DSC_7697, by Tony Salas, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Team Leaders

  • Jason Luck, Pratt School of Engineering: Biomedical Engineering
  • Adam Mehlenbacher, School of Medicine: Head and Neck Surgery and Communication Sciences

Graduate Team Members

  • Mitchell Abrams, Biomedical Engineering-PHD
  • Carson Herman, Master of Egr Biomedical Egr
  • Anusha Krishnamoorthy, Biomedical Engineering-MS

Undergraduate Team Members

  • Lily Baglio, Economics (BS)
  • Erin Biddiscombe, Neuroscience (BS)
  • Andy Chen, Computer Science (BS)
  • Martha Deja, Neuroscience (BS)
  • Kennedy Everson, Neuroscience (AB)
  • Andrew Hu, Biomedical Engineering (BSE)
  • Audrey Kline, Computer Science (BS)
  • Veronika Kostina, Biomedical Engineering (BSE); Computer Science (BS2)
  • Paola Lambert, Neuroscience (BS)
  • Rachel Landwehr, Biology (BS)
  • Kayla Lloyd, Neuroscience (BS)
  • Alex Mason, Economics (BS)
  • Ariana Matarangas, Neuroscience (BS)
  • Kishen Mitra, Biomedical Engineering (BSE)
  • Emme Payne, Biology (BS); Global Health (AB2)
  • Alejandro Rodriguez, Psychology (BS)
  • Katie Schilling, Computer Science (BS)
  • Andrew Shaffer, Neuroscience (BS)
  • Riley Spingler, Biology (BS)
  • Cindy Su, Neuroscience (BS); Computer Science (AB2)
  • Michelle Tetro, Neuroscience (BS)
  • Kennedy Truitt, Biology (BS); Evolutionary Anthropology(BS2)

Community Team Members

  • Bruce Capehart, Durham VA Medical Center

Community Organizations

  • Cardinal Gibbons High School
  • Durham Eagles Pop Warner Youth Football

Team Contributors

  • Jennifer Groh, Arts & Sciences: Psychology and Neuroscience
  • Jason Kait, Pratt School of Engineering: Biomedical Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering: Civil & Environmental Engineering

Themes