Portable brain scanners may be present in more locker rooms

A portable brain scanner could become present in more locker rooms which could change the way concussions are understood in the long-term.

A portable imaging tool could change the way the medical community analyzes and understands the long-term effects of sports-related concussions.

Research conducted by Humboldt State Kinesiology professor Rock Braithwaite has played a significant role in demonstrating the usefulness of computerized neurocognitive testing in determining the extent of the effects of concussion on cognition and performance among student athletes and military personnel.

"This preliminary study, although small, showed us where in the brain a patient is affected and to what cognitive extent," said Michael Collins, director of a current study being conducted on functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as a low-cost, portable device for imaging sports and military concussions.

Braithwaite collaborated with former HSU professor Anthony Kontos, a professor for the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, and two other University of Pittsburgh professors, on the fNIRS research that is considered the largest statistical review of computerized testing to date. The study, published in the March Journal of International Neuropsychological Society, supplied data for Kontos' study.

Braithwaite's study evaluated prior research of published computerized concussion testing to date, covering 37 studies and 3,960 participants all within the first week of sustaining a concussion. The study produced two key findings:

- Middle school and younger high-school students displayed more pronounced cognitive effects and greater performance deterioration according to neurocognitive testing after a concussion than their senior high school and college-aged counterparts.

- ImPACT® -- a computerized neurocognitive test battery designed to assess mild traumatic brain injury -- demonstrated the strongest performance for detecting cognitive impairment because it measured the types of tasks that this meta-analysis identified as most effective at detecting post-concussion issues including: processing speed, verbal memory, visual memory and recall. The success of this technology indicates computerized testing -- as conducted with the fNIRS -- is the most accurate evaluation method.

"ImPACT found the largest effects for individuals who had been concussed -- across all outcomes," said Braithwaite, who conceived of the idea for this study. "Memory, processing speed, recall … ImPACT was able to better detect changes compared to the other computerized tests."

"In the past decade and a half, many in the field of concussion science have tried to find an imaging tool that could help us in a clinical setting -- and failed to find anything with consistency," said Collins. "[Braithwaite's study] was enough evidence for us to keep pushing further with this potential tool."

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