BY MEGHAN HODGES
Bruin contributor
mhodges@media.ucla.edu

Each time a UCLA football player experiences a head-on-head collision during a practice or game, researchers can track the hit to detect the speed, angle, velocity and force imparted on the athlete’s head.

This new development is part of a three-year national concussion study which planted sensors in the helmets of 27 UCLA football players this spring. The NCAA and the U.S. Department of Defense funded the $30 million study.

The helmet sensors act as accelerometers, said Dr. Christopher Giza, director of the UCLA Steve Tisch BrainSPORT Program. As motion detector sensors fit into the lining of the helmets, they wirelessly transmit data about a hit when an athlete is struck.

The researchers aim to determine whether there is a combination of mechanical factors that can predict whether an athlete will get a concussion – often, a hit more than 90 times the force of gravity can result in a brain injury. They also plan to study the dangers of playing a contact sport and the short-term and long-term effects on a person’s neurological functioning, Giza said.

The helmet sensors will also help medical trainers working with athletes determine when an athlete has incurred an injury, said Dr. John DiFiori, chief of the Division of Sports Medicine at UCLA.

“At the NFL level and higher collegiate level, the hard part for medical staff is that they can’t see everything,” Giza said. “With this system, they will be alerted that something has happened and can take whatever necessary actions they can to make sure that person is okay.”

The initial goal of the project is to determine the biology of a concussion. In the lab, the researchers are given some insight about how brain injuries can alter cognitive function, but with the sensors, they can translate this information from the lab to the playing field to determine when an athlete is able to safely return to the game, Giza said.

“A lot of the concern about the long-term effects of a concussion may be minimized by our ability to better assess when someone has recovered from a concussion and safely resume their sport,” DiFiori. “If players are returning before they’re fully recovered, they are much more likely to get another concussion.”

UCLA is one of the three, soon to be four, universities that use the helmet sensors as part of the advanced research core faction of the study. The schools already participating include UCLA, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Virginia Tech. The fourth is set to be the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Seventeen other universities are a part of a larger study called the Clinical Study Core, which conducts standardized neurological and medical examinations for reaction time, balance and reflexes, among athletes playing football.

Another aspect of the study is to determine the proper education for players, families, coaches and the general public so that people can fully understand concussions. One of the problems, Giza said, is that athletes often hide symptoms of concussions out of fear of losing playtime, so they put themselves at risk for longer-term problems, including issues with neurological functions.

“These sensors can also be used to improve players’ techniques,” said Brendan Burger, director of equipment operations for UCLA football. “If players are taking an impact on the head, it speaks to the way that they’re tackling and launching themselves at people. It will also show the varying forces that different positions on the field incur.”

Hoping to eventually incorporate all NCAA athletes, the Clinical Study Core plans to continue to determine the effects of concussion on the brain in the long run by examining football players and the sensor results before and after each season.