MEASUREMENT OF HEAD IMPACTS IN COLLEGIATE FOOTBALL PLAYERS

Abstract

Our findings suggest that football players are concussed by impacts to the head that occur at a wide range of magnitudes and that clinical measures of acute symptom severity, postural stability, and neuropsychological function all appear to be largely independent of impact magnitude and location. Because of the varying magnitudes and locations of impacts resulting in concussion as well as other factors such as the frequency of subconcussive impacts and number of previous concussions, it may be difficult to establish a threshold for concussive injury that can be applied to all football players.