Oculomotor Response as an Objective Assessment for Mild TBI in the Pediatric Population (2019-2020)
This multiyear Bass Connections project aimed to address the impact of sports-related concussions in children. Team members assessed youth athletes with an oculomotor assessment routine and compared these data to in-season documentation of concussion and level of impact/practice exposure. The sample population included youth athletes from five years of age to the high school level.
The team successfully completed a fifth year of data acquisition in the study’s high school through youth football league cohorts. Completion of this fifth year provided longitudinal data for a subset of the study population over their entire high school playing career. Additionally, this longitudinal and multiprogram model provided the opportunity to follow student-athletes across programs – from middle school to high school. Data acquisition within these cohorts included eye tracking assessments, neurocognitive testing, symptom scoring, anthropometric measurements and acquisition of head impact exposure data through the use of the Duke DASHR (earpiece sensor) and/or weekly athletic activity reporting. The team continued to develop a fully portable eye tracking system and collect additional longitudinal data.
Timing
Summer 2019 – Spring 2020
Team Outputs
Cameron R. Bass, Examining the Effects of Head Supported Mass on Cervical Spine Biomechanics and Injury Risk in Special Forces Operators ($622,664 grant awarded from Atrium Health Foundation, 2020)
Beau Blass, Department of Neuroscience – Graduation with Distinction, April 17, 2020, “Oculomotor Response as an Assessment for Subconcussive Loading in the Pediatric Population.”
Using a Random Forest Classifier to Pre-Process Oculomotor Response Datasets – Implications for Classifying Valid versus Invalid Pro-saccades in Head Injury Research (poster by V. Nukala, A. Putka, J.F. Luck, presented at 2020 Human Movement Science and Biomechanics Research Symposium, Chapel Hill, NC, March 20, 2020)
Pritzlaff, W.J., B. Blass, M. Abrams, D. O’Connell, M. Paithane, C. Hile, E. Hsieh, K. Khlystova, A. Mehlenbacher, B. Capehart, C.R. Bass and J.F. Luck. 2019. Anti-Saccade Latency and Correct Direction Saccade Following Head Impact Exposure. Abstract presented at the 2019 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting, October 16-19, 2019, Philadelphia, PA.
Pritzlaff, W.J., B. Blass, M. Abrams, D. O’Connell, M. Paithane, C. Hile, E. Hsieh, K. Khlystova, A. Mehlenbacher, B. Capehart, C.R. Bass and J.F. Luck. 2019. Anti-Saccade and Sub-Concussive Loading: Changes in Initial and End Gain Task Metrics following Head Impact Exposure in a High School Football Season. Abstract presented at the 2019 Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, October 23, 2019, Chicago, IL
Reflections
This Team in the News
The Test and the Tackle: A New Way to Measure Head Injury in Youth Football
See related teams, Eye Tracking: Objective Assessment for Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Youth Athletes (2020-2021) and Oculomotor Response as an Objective Assessment for Mild TBI in the Pediatric Population (2018-2019).
Image: SYC Football Game180, by Xanteen, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0