Eye Tracking: An Objective Assessment for Pediatric mTBI (2026-2027)

Background

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) — including sports-related concussion — is one of the most common causes of disability and death among children. An estimated 1.9 million children and adolescents experience concussions each year, and as many as 30-60% of all pediatric concussions occur during sports participation. Despite the scale of this public health challenge, clinicians still lack objective diagnostic tools that can accurately detect concussion or quantify the effects of repeated sub-concussive impacts.

Head impacts that do not result in a clinical diagnosis can still affect the developing brain, but these changes are difficult to detect using current assessments. Eye movement tasks, such as smooth pursuit and rapid saccades, offer a promising avenue for objective measurement because they are sensitive to neurological disruption. By combining eye-tracking assessments with detailed, in-season documentation of head impact exposure using an in-ear sensor (DASHR), this project seeks to advance scientific understanding of how concussion and cumulative sub-concussive loading affect the pediatric brain.

Project Description

Building on more than a decade of collaborative work, this project team will continue a large-scale longitudinal study of youth athletes ages 5-18 to evaluate whether specific eye movement patterns can serve as objective indicators of concussion and sub-concussive exposure.

Team members will conduct assessments with youth, middle school and high school athletes using a standardized oculomotor protocol that includes smooth pursuit, pro-saccades, anti-saccades and memory-guided saccades. These data will be compared with detailed records of head impact exposure gathered through weekly surveys and the DASHR device. By assessing athletes across multiple time points — baseline, mid-season, end-of-season and follow-up — the team will examine how oculomotor response changes over both a single season and an athletic career.

This twelfth year of the study will also expand data collection in middle school athletes and introduce a new, low-exposure comparison group (girls’ flag football). Participants may be followed for up to seven years, creating one of the first pediatric datasets capturing brain-related functional changes from early youth through late adolescence.

Team members will meet weekly as an intact group, with additional meetings for field work, independent study projects and subteam collaborations. Undergraduate and graduate students will work alongside PhD students, a postdoctoral associate and community athletic partners.

Anticipated Outputs

• Peer-reviewed manuscripts
• Conference abstracts and poster presentations
• Annual presentations at regional and national scientific meetings
• Data analysis to support future grant submissions

Student Opportunities

Ideally, this project team will include 4-5 graduate students and 12-15 undergraduate students. Students from neuroscience, biology, chemistry, engineering, computer science, psychology, statistics, public policy, mathematics and related fields are encouraged to apply. Students should be excited about working with young athletes ages 5-18 and engaging with families, coaches and athletic staff.

Team members will gain experience in human subjects research, including training on study design, consent/assent, work with minors and data protection. Students will assist with participant assessments using portable eye-tracking systems, collect and analyze head impact exposure data and contribute to manuscript writing. Undergraduate researchers will build knowledge in injury biomechanics, neuroscience and applied data analysis, while graduate students will serve as near-peer mentors and support project management.

Students will have opportunities to build independent study projects, conduct literature reviews, perform statistical analyses and prepare abstracts for symposia. Selected students may participate in optional summer research (Summer 2026), which includes training, baseline testing and involvement in field assessments.

Timing

Summer 2026 – Spring 2027

Summer 2026 (optional):

• Orientation with community partners
• Participant consent/assent
• Review and revise study materials
• Training on assessments
• Baseline oculomotor testing and DASHR fitting

Fall 2026:

• In-season oculomotor assessments (October)
• End-of-season assessments (December)
• Analysis of eye-tracking, survey and exposure data
• Independent study and scientific writing projects

Spring 2027:

• Follow-up assessments
• Continued analysis of multi-year datasets
• DASHR data processing
• Independent study finalization and symposium preparation

Crediting

Academic credit available for fall and spring semesters

See earlier related team, Eye Tracking: An Objective Assessment for Pediatric mTBI (2025-2026).