Research summary
Concussions are extremely common, but unlike other musculoskeletal injuries, they are invisible and often under-reported. Athletes in contact sports are at higher risk, and a growing number of studies are finding that those who sustain repeated head impacts may experience long-term brain consequences. Yet the mechanism of this brain injury is still poorly understood.
Wearable sensors are a promising tool that can gather human data from real-world head impacts and brain injuries, but the technology and research are still limited. As Canada Research Chair in Wearable Brain Injury Sensing, Dr. Lyndia (Chun) Wu is tackling the problem of quantifying on-field sensor noise. She and her research team are also gathering high-quality, large-scale head impact exposure data from a wide range of athletes and developing a novel sensor toolkit to examine brain changes. Their research will provide insight into brain injury mechanisms and support the development of innovative tools for monitoring brain trauma.