Neuroscience and Art - Week 7

Figure One: Mayweather vs Hatton 

This weeks topic of neuroscience brought me to a topic that has grown in popularity in the past couple years and is personal to me. It is concussions. A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury that jars or shakes the brain inside the skull. (1) This injury is commonly seen in contact sports including but not limited to football, basketball and soccer. Concussions happen all too often but not a lot is known about them, this blog post will be dedicated to educating people about the effects of concussions and what we can do to prevent them. The reason why this topic hits so close to home for me is because I have suffered multiple concussions with the last of them putting me in the hospital for  two days.

Figure Two: Concussions and Sports 

When I got my concussions I was playing football, this is important because according to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) 47% of all sports related concussions happen when playing football (2). The crazy thing about the when I look back at it is how little my coaches knew about concussions, I was pretty sure when I would get one but the coaches would give you some water and put you right back in the game. Over the years people have become very aware of the impact having a concussion has on the rest of your life because of some big time athletes suffering from them. A way that has come about to see if a person has suffered a concussion is by having them take a neuropsychological test which is a test that measures cognitive abilities and skills (3) The way the test works is that you take a baseline before the season and then once people think you have a concussion you take the test again and the results should provide a good answer as to if you have a concussion or not.

Figure Three: Football Helmet 

Now that we have looked at how we can figure out if you have a concussion we need to take a look at how we can prevent them. The best way to prevent concussions is by promoting athletes to play by the rules. For example, in football you cannot lead with your head when tackling and if this rule is followed concussions cane prevented for the tackler and the ball carrier. The second way is through better protective equipment. Take Zenith Helmets for example, they are using new shock exerting technology to reduced the amount of force that your head absorbs and instead directs it into the helmet (4). We need more companies like Xenith that are trying to think of new ways to protect athletes without really having to change the game.

According to brainline.org an estimated 1.6 - 3.8 million sports related concussions happen each year (5). This number is so big it's hard to imagine how many concussions that really is. Sports are one of the great things in society and I don't think they should change because of concussions. We definitely need to continue to learn more about them and figure out ways to prevent them but what we don't need to do is change our sports to prevent concussions. Education is key, we don't want our negligence to lead to a child or adult getting a concussion.

Bibliography
Online Sources 
1.) "Concussion: Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 12 May 2015.
2.) "Head Case - Complete Concussion Managements." Stats on Concussions & Sports -. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2015.
3.) "Concussion Facts | Sports Concussion Institute." Concussion Facts | Sports Concussion Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2015.
4.) "Football Helmet Technology | Xenith." Xenith. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2015.
5.) "Concussion and Sports." Concussion and Sports. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2015.
Pictures
Figure One: "Sports Stars Suffer Effects of Concussion Years Later." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, n.d. Web. 12 May 2015.
Figure Two: "Young Athletes Risk a Lasting Blow from Concussions." Young Athletes Risk a Lasting Blow from Concussions. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2015.
Figure Three: "Concussions in Football." Bobby Saadian. N.p., 12 Nov. 2013. Web. 12 May 2015.