USU concussion research helps athletes
Utah State has 395 student-athletes on the rosters of 16 different sports. Every athlete is at risk of a concussion due to the nature of each sport’s day-to-day activities. In an average year on the Logan campus, anywhere from 10 to 20 of these students will suffer a concussion, according to research.
Such research has been conducted for the past 10 years on the effects of concussive episodes and helping athletes recover from them. Now, using state-of-the-art equipment, USU Athletics is improving this research along with the departments of communicative disorders and deaf education and health, physical education and recreation.
Dale Mildenberger, senior associate athletics director and head athletic trainer, is one of the men behind the acquisition of the new equipment.
“This furthers our investigation into mild traumatic brain injuries,” he said. “We’ve been involved in this for quite some time, but this new approach allows us to see if what we’ve been doing is validated by this new, sophisticated equipment, or if in fact we need to make some adjustments to our protocols.
John Ribera, a professor in the COMD department, works in audiology, dealing with hearing and balance disorders. He works with doctoral students, preparing them to become professionals. He said traumatic brain injuries are seen as the “silent epidemic,” and too often the symptoms are ignored or thought to be insignificant.
This silent epidemic proves to be a timely issue — accidents and sporting events that cause concussions and the ensuing brain damage happen daily, in Logan and all over the world. Ribera cited this week’s motorcycle accident near campus as an example of that.
Though the motorcyclist survived, it is possible he will have neurological damage, he said. Due to the amount of incidents that occur, concussion research is picking up, and trainers and scientists want to do something about it.
“It’s only recently that organizations such as the NFL are really looking into it,” Ribera said.
The equipment is named SMART EquiTest — a computerized posturography machine, which tests the central nervous system and specifically the parts involved in posture and balance.
“We just want to be able to take care of the traumatized brain,” Mildenberger said. “The more we talk with each other, the more we find common questions and that’s one of the most valuable aspects of the equipment. It’s not a natural combination, but when you realize we’re all interested in the same organ — the brain — and how it affects cognition, balance, coordination and vision, this gives us a wider field to attack from, and it gives us more investigators.”
The various departments come together to work as a team, Ribera said, which allows them to see through each other’s eyes. Mildenberger agreed.
“As we look at the tie-in between athletics and communication — inner ear, balance, hearing, human movement — they’re all connected,” Mildenberger said. “If audiology and COMD only looks at their area, human movement only looks at theirs and athletics only looks at theirs, you get a very narrow perspective. If you look at them collectively, you get a bigger picture.”
Prior to obtaining this new equipment, athletic trainers conducted common pre-concussion tests on every student-athlete.
“The existing protocol we used was the Standard Assessment of Concussion as well as the Balance Error Scoring System,” Mildenberger said.
Every athlete has taken a battery of tests, and a baseline has been set on those scores. In the case of a concussion, the athlete must take the tests again and receive an equal or better score before they can return to playing their sport.
“This way we are not comparing them to national norms to determine if they’re healthy,” Mildenberger said, “but rather we’re comparing them to themselves.”
Ribera said he is looking forward to the effects the new research can have, not only with athletes but on the general population as well.
“We’ve been a little restricted on the balance side of things, in the past,” he said. “There are a lot of individuals in the community who experience dizziness or have fallen, but they are usually taken to Ogden or Salt Lake for better testing. We haven’t been able to provide that kind of service here.”
Mildenberger said what is true for the athlete is also true for other people.
“Whether the (concussion) is caused by athletic competition, a fall, an accident or military exposure to explosions, we need to find common answers, common physiology and common rehabilitation,” Mildenberger said.
Even the term “athlete” has broad interpretations. There are those playing on the NCAA level, intramural athletes, and even the American Youth Soccer Organization players. Any of these athletes are prone to a concussion.
The SMART EquiTest is going to help further the research on a national level as well, which has implications for age groups other than college-aged athletes.
“There are no norms for anyone under the age of 20 to use the EquiTest,” Ribera said. “We want to bring in young athletes and determine a norm for them.”
“The brain is essential to human function, so the more we understand it from all its aspects, the better off the entire general public will be,” Mildenberger said. “We’re not just trying to get the linebacker back on the field.”
– megan.allen@aggiemail.usu.edu