![\"SPRING16a-matter-of-white-matter\"](\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/SPRING16a-matter-of-white-matter.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Concussions and brain performance have become important topics as of late, especially in the realm of football, where punishing hits can exceed the force of a severe car crash.<\/p>\n
The problem, however, lies in diagnosing the true extent that concussions have affected the white matter in the brain. White matter is sort of like the subway line of the brain, connecting different regions that control vision, balance and other crucial functions. And while a scanner such as an MRI can assess physical damage to the brain, the technology to diagnose brain performance \u2014 the health of the white matter \u2014 is still in its infancy.<\/p>\n
Last fall, concussion expert Dr. Russell Gore, director of vestibular neurology at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, visited Georgia Southern as part of the annual Norman Fries Distinguished Lectureship Series to discuss this technology in his talk, \u201cBrain Injury and the Limits of Human Performance: From Fighter Planes to Football Games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gore says most of the early concussion technology sought to monitor exposure: the amount of gravitational force (g’s) sustained in a hit. And while this technology has certainly given researchers a much clearer picture of exposure, there are still questions left to be answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes perfect sense at face value that there would be a direct correlation between the force of an impact to someone’s head and the injury that they would then sustain,\u201d Gore said. \u201cBut what we found in terms of the research side is that hasn’t panned out. It’s very difficult to set a threshold in terms of what exposure actually means something, and there are so many other factors involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
While some people might be able to sustain repeated hits at 90 g\u2019s, others might be concussed at 60 g\u2019s. The differences could be physiology, genetics or a host of other factors. In order to overcome these variables, Gore and other researchers have been in search of technologies that would accurately assess brain performance. These technologies would not only help football players on the field, but could also help fighter pilots who routinely experience 4 g\u2019s and greater in combat, as well as soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).<\/p>\n
These emerging technologies and assessments range from elaborate virtual reality simulations for soldiers to modified video games that assess balance and eye movements \u2014 the latter of which has been developed at Georgia Southern. Nicholas Murray, Ph.D., assistant professor of Concussion Research at the University, and his team used a soccer heading game on the Nintendo Wii\u00ae along with a monocular eye-tracking device to measure brain performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are doing a fantastic job,\u201d Gore said of Murray and his team. \u201cOne of the things that interests me the most is when folks are pulling off-the-shelf technologies and they\u2019re finding uses for them in this space.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gore says these off-the-shelf technologies are exciting because they are affordable and commercially viable. He and a team at Georgia Tech have been developing their own systems and optics for brain performance measurement, spending over three years and millions of dollars to develop a prototype. And now that the military hopes to use them in their assessments, the technology will still cost $3,000 to $4,000 to produce each unit.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what we are shifting toward is more commercially available technology,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd to me that\u2019s really exciting.\u201d \u2014 Doy Cave<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Concussion Research Explored<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3096,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[53],"class_list":["post-2975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-spring-2016"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}