It looks like an oversize hairnet covered with hundreds of bottle caps. But the bottle caps are electrodes and the hair net is a mesh that a football player can slip over his head following a hit. If the device works as planned, a football player who takes a hit to the head will come to the sideline, remove his helmet and slip on an electrode-covered mesh cap.
The team’s medical staff will analyze the player’s brain waves on the spot and determine within minutes if he can safely return to the game or whether he has sustained a concussion. If it is a concussion, the electrodes will indicate the extent of the injury, and, if there is one, how severe it is.
The device, still under development, is a product of the University of Nebraska’s Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior, called the CB3, headed by Dennis Molfese. “There has been great concussion research that’s been going on for decades, ” said Molfese, “It’s disconcerting to realize just how little we really know.”
CB3’s main attraction is the mesh cap studded with electrodes making it a type of magnetic resonance imaging machine—known as a functional MRI—that tracks the brain’s blood flow. Developers hope it will help define what is and is not a concussion.
Brian Hainline, M.D., chief medical officer for the NCAA, is supportive of the research. “Concussion is right up there as first and foremost. It’s the elephant on the table, and we, with everyone else, we have to solve it, ” he said. “The big, hoped-for dream would be, let’s have a biomarker in brain imaging. If you’re to the left of that, you’re safe; if you’re to the right of it, you’re not. That’s probably a few years out. But functional brain imaging and blood flow are going to be a very important part of that.”
About 300, 000 sports-related concussions are reported annually in the United States. They became a major concern after the publicity given the number of brain injuries reported by former NFL players. Thousands of former players are presently suing the league, claiming that the NFL did not adequately protect players from concussions.
