As you watch the Patriots and Giants smash into each other
Sunday, consider this. For two years researchers studied head
impacts among 24 high school football players. They compared
helmet-sensor data with brain imaging scans, along with
cognitive tests. And they found that it’s not just a single blow
to the head that causes concussion—it can also be the cumulative
effect of multiple blows. The last impact is then the last straw
for an already compromised brain. The research is in the Journal
of Biomechanics. Players received from 200 to nearly 1,900 hits
to the head in one season, and sensors recorded impact forces of
20 to 100 Gs. Of the players studied, six were officially
concussed. But 17 more showed brain changes in areas associated
with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative disease
known to affect concussed players. The brain scans also revealed
that players relied on different strategies than did most people
during cognitive tests, due to a reduction in their functional
abilities. Other stu