As the understanding of the brain has evolved throughout history, so too has the understanding of brain injury and concussion. To this day, there is still debate over the definition of concussion, and what it entails. Some definitions, including that of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, define a concussion as " (a) …a jarring injury of the brain, or (b) a hard blow or collision " [1], whereas the...

OBJECTIVE To determine if there is a gender difference in the incidence and outcomes of sport concussion. DESIGN Critical literature review of sport concussion by gender. INTERVENTION PubMed and major sports medicine journals were reviewed using the keywords concussion and gender. Articles included in this paper were English prospective surveillance that included concussion as an injury opt...

BACKGROUND Understanding the risk and trends of sports-related concussion among 12 scholastic sports may contribute to concussion detection, treatment, and prevention. PURPOSE To examine the incidence and relative risk of concussion in 12 high school boys' and girls' sports between academic years 1997-1998 and 2007-2008. STUDY DESIGN Descriptive epidemiology study. METHODS Data were prosp...

CONTEXT Lack of empirical data on recovery time following sport-related concussion hampers clinical decision making about return to play after injury. OBJECTIVE To prospectively measure immediate effects and natural recovery course relating to symptoms, cognitive functioning, and postural stability following sport-related concussion. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Prospective cohort stud...

The Canadian Concussion Collaborative (CCC) is composed of health-related organisations concerned with the recognition, treatment and management of concussion. Its mission is to create synergy between organisations concerned with concussion to improve education and implementation of best practices for the prevention and management of concussions. Each of the organisations that constitute the CC...

Sports concussion research and clinical guidelines have evolved rapidly. The most recent concussion consensus statement and guidelines (Zurich, 2008) provided clinicians with the Sports Concussion Assessment Tool version 2 (SCAT2) as a clinical template for the assessment of acute concussion. For the subsequent serial examinations required for the complete assessment of the concussed athlete, S...

On the mild end of the acquired brain injury spectrum, the terms concussion and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) have been used interchangeably, where persistent post-concussive syndrome (PPCS) has been a label given when symptoms persist for more than three months post-concussion. Whereas a brief history of concussion research is overviewed, the focus of this review is on the current status ...

This study investigated the influence of concussion history on children's neurocognitive processing. Thirty-two children ages 8-10 years (16 with a concussion history, 16 controls) completed compatible and incompatible conditions of a flanker task while behavioral and neuroelectric data were collected. Relative to controls, children with a concussion history exhibited alterations in the sequent...

Concussion frequently results in executive function deficits that can be specifically probed using task-switching tasks. The current study examined in detail the influence of concussion on task switching performance using both spatial and numerical stimuli. Individuals with concussion (n = 16) were tested within 48 hours of injury and 7, 14, and 28 days later. Healthy sex-, age-, height-, weigh...

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in contact sport is a problem of such magnitude that improved approaches to diagnosis, investigation and management are urgent. Concussion has traditionally been described as a transient, fully reversible, cerebral dysfunction. However, this seemingly 'mild' injury sometimes results in long-lasting and disabling post-concussion symptoms (PCS) and abnormal neur...