Eye Tracking: An Objective Assessment for Pediatric mTBI (2024-2025)

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is an important public health issue for both the general pediatric population and youth athletes. However, it is difficult to obtain objective diagnoses of mTBI or quantify the implications of cumulative sub-concussive (low-level) insults. 

This project team assessed 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 examined how this objective assessment may increase our understanding of the implications of multiple sub-concussive head impacts over time — beyond a single season into a career of play. The team’s work contributed to a longitudinal study through which adolescent athletes have been continuously assessed over the course of several years.

In 2024-2025, team members integrated a new cohort of male and female track and field or cross-country athletes. Inclusion of this cohort, comprising athletes who experience little to no head impacts in their sport, provided a control for comparison to the football cohort, as well as an opportunity to examine gender differences. 

As part of this project, students engaged in the Institutional Review Board (IRB) process with research staff and faculty; participated in study design development for meetings with community collaborators; collected and analyzed data from the field; and contributed to the development and writing of academic manuscripts.

Timing

Summer 2024 – Spring 2025

Team Outputs

Peer-reviewed manuscripts

Abstracts

Presentations and/or posters at a local conference

See earlier related team, Eye Tracking: Objective Assessment for Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Youth Athletes (2023-2024).

Image: KEM_1098, by Katie Morrow, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0