Human Head Impact Dose Concussion Risk Functions and Sensor-Based Military-Specific Environmental Monitoring System

Approximately 80% of military mTBI, affecting hundreds of thousands of soldiers, occur in non-deployed settings like combative training activities. Concussion and mTBI caused by loss of consciousness is serious concern to the Departments of Defense and Transportation because it is a major impediment to egress in aviation crashes. Military, athletic and transportation authorities have long desired a system that can monitor concussion and mTBI risk in real-time, as well as quantify head impacts that cause acute and long-term brain health decline. In spite of recent proliferation in head impact instrumentation, there still is no objective means to identify concussion risk in real-time from any single impact. In this proposal we will use valid measurements to quantify head impact severity, clinical behavioral assessments and brain damage locations in comprehensive studies of soldiers and athletes. We specifically aim to (1)Monitor dangerous head impacts to US Army Soldiers undergoing combative training without negatively impacting concept of operations. Provide head injury risk functions and dose-response relationships gathered from Modern Army Combatives Program (MACP) personnel, (2) Develop a prototype military-specific boil-and-bite Intelligent Mouthguard to instrument and monitor large numbers of personnel simultaneously without negatively impacting the concept of operations, (3) Conduct a pilot project to determine how to best monitor head impacts and quantify injury risk in Federal Service Academy personnel participating in American Football, Ice Hockey, Lacrosse, Rugby, Soccer, Wrestling and Boxing, (4) Conduct a pilot project to monitor head impacts in the airborne environment and determine how to utilize this population to best quantify dose-response relationship without negatively impacting concept of operations and (5) Assist USAARL in laboratory testing to develop standard means to quantify sensitivity and specificity of head impact dosimeters in ATD and PMHS tests. After completing these projects, we will have defined the relationship(s) between head impact kinematics, behavioral outcomes and likely locations of brain injury for US Military and athletic populations. We will be able to define performance specifications for environmental sensing instruments that can monitor US Military members at risk of short- and long-term head injury in training. We will know kinematic inputs responsible for highest head injury risk and be able to pursue subsequent projects that design military, athletic and transportation-specific protective systems to reduce impact kinematics in a physics-based manner. Finally, we will have pre-production, ruggedized and user-friendly systems ready to monitor future US Military members.