Soldiers attending the US Army Basic Airborne Training were equipped with sensors that detect head motion from impact or inertia, offering metrics on number of impacts, peak linear acceleration, peak rotational acceleration, and peak rotational velocity.
These soldiers also underwent a visual-vestibular balance/sensory integration assessment that included assessment of the ability to process and integrate changing vestibular and sensory information.
They found that visual-vestibular performance changed over the course of airborne training, with the greatest decrease in performance occurring with the most difficult visual-vestibular task.
This task, called the “sea sick” condition, had a correlated relationship with head impact kinematics. Put simply, the worse an individual performed on the “sea sick” condition, the greater head impact kinematics, specifically peak rotational velocity and peak linear acceleration.
The authors concluded that performance on a visual-vestibular balance task may be a useful measure for detecting subconcussive impacts and wearable sensors may provide useful data on head impact kinematics that relate directly to functionally relevant performance. [1]
References:
- Kelley, A. M., Bernhardt, K., Hass, N., & Rooks, T. (2021). Detecting functional deficits following sub-concussive head impacts: the relationship between head impact kinematics and visual-vestibular balance performance. Brain Injury, 35(7), 812-820.