Concussions are a growing health concern and both their immediate and long-term effects are still largely unknown.
Brian Christie, a neuroscientist at the University of Victoria, has developed a new model to study concussions with help from his students.
The Awake Closed Head Injury (ACHI) model looks at the effects of multiple mild concussions in still-developing brains of young people – who are most at risk of concussions, according to the study.
The model reproduces impacts of concussions in a more reliable and precise manner than traditional models.
The team also developed a new concussion assessment tool that has already identified differences in the way repeated concussions affect males and females.
“Males tend to show acute symptoms right away, but they also seem to recover fairly quickly,” says Christie. “Conversely, females don’t show as significant behavioural symptoms in the acute phase, but they do a few days later. This suggests a slower, more progressive nature to their injury.”
Christie believes the research can pave the way for more personalized and effective treatment if ongoing testing proves these results are accurate.
Current models for understanding head trauma have focused on one-off concussions in adults and don’t differentiate gender.
They often use anesthesia or surgery, such as craniotomies, to induce mild damage to the brain which can skew research results.
ACHI is adapted from the sport concussions assessment tool used for determining if athletes have a concussion.
Both use the same system to measure reflexes and behavioural cues to accurately diagnose the severity of the concussion.
The research team is working on other projects to examine how repeated injuries affect the functioning of neurons in the brain, providing insight into sex-appropriate biomarkers for concussions.
