BME Seminar: Carissa Grijalva
Monday, April 25th, 2022, 12:00 p.m.
Carissa Grijalva
BME Ph.D. Candidate
Laksari Lab
“Hyper-acute Brain Hemodynamic and Neurocognitive Function response to Repetitive Head Impacts”
Keating 103
Live Zoom |Passcode: BearDown
(Instructor permission required for enrolled students to attend via Zoom)
Hosts: Dr. Beth Hutchinson and Dr. Russ Witte
Persons with a disability may request a reasonable accommodation by contacting the Disability Resource Center at 621-3268 (V/TTY).
ABSTRACT: Every year, approximately 42 million people suffer from mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), otherwise known as concussion; and although there are protective and preventive technology developed to prevent this injury, incidence is still on the rise. The precise physical mechanism of human injury is unclear, even more so if there are no diagnosed clinical symptoms of concussion which is the case for sub-concussive impacts. Athletes that participate in contact sports from Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) or even soccer may experience up to thousands of sub-concussive head impacts in a single season.
In recent years there has been concern regarding the adverse effects of repetitive head impacts such as those that take place during certain sports like MMA and soccer on brain function and physiology. In addition, some studies have demonstrated dysregulation in cerebral blood flow and brain activation patterns in the weeks following concussion via MRI and fMRI. Neurocognitive tests have also been used in combination with fMRI techniques to determine changes in motor and cognitive function after a sports related concussion.
In this work, we seek to understand the physiological and functional outcomes of sub-concussive and concussive level impacts immediately after occurrence. We utilize transcranial Doppler ultrasound and functional near infrared imaging techniques along with neurocognitive/functional testing to determine hyper-acute (i.e., within minutes) changes in brain blood flow, oxygenation, and sensorimotor functions, for soccer and MMA athletes. In addition, wearable sensors embedded into custom-fit mouth guards are used to capture head kinematics in order to correlate with possible injury, and physiological outcomes. Our findings on repetitive head impact exposure on hemodynamic responses could lead to improved monitoring and management of minor and major head impacts during sport participation.