{"id":12087,"date":"2015-11-16T08:18:53","date_gmt":"2015-11-16T13:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=12087"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:08:33","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:08:33","slug":"concussion-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=12087","title":{"rendered":"Guskiewicz, Mihalik talk impact of concussions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jason<\/a>
Jason Mihalik (left) and Kevin Guskiewicz at the Tar Heel Tailgate Talk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Watch Kevin Guskiewicz<\/a> on the Nov. 15 CBS “60 Minutes” episode on “Football and the Brain.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Concussions on the playing field may steal the news headlines, but head trauma isn\u2019t just an issue for athletes \u2014 it can be a life-or-death situation for members of the military, as well.<\/p>\n

As the injury impairs and affects a soldier\u2019s vision, and the trauma can quickly reduce their ability to assess what is happening on the battlefield.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have to worry about blasts on football fields or soccer fields, but it\u2019s a component of head trauma that the military has to be worried about,\u201d said Jason Mihalik, assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences\u2019 Department of Exercise and Sport Science.<\/p>\n

Understanding how concussions affect the body and how research is working to better protect people from effects of the harmful trauma was the topic of this season\u2019s Tar Heel Tailgate Talk series finale Nov. 14.<\/p>\n

The talks, which were held before home games this season, highlighted the intersection of academics and athletics.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have so many accomplishments that our faculty have made in service to society and to the state,\u201d said Bruce Cairns, chair of the faculty. \u201cThat\u2019s really what these talks reflect \u2014 an opportunity for our community to hear some of the real advances and impact that people are making across the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Co-directors of the Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related TBI Research Center, Mihalik and Kevin Guskiewicz, closed out this year\u2019s lecture series by teaming up to present a complete picture of what research at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is focusing on. Guskiewicz also is Dean-designate of the College of Arts and Sciences.<\/p>\n

\u201cInnovative science can be a game changer,\u201d Mihalik said. \u201cWe have done things over the last decade and a half to innovate our science into things that society can use every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

While researchers are working to better understand how concussions and repeated concussions affect the brain, there are currently more unknowns than knowns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the very few injuries we treat as sports medicine clinicians that we can\u2019t see on an image,\u201d said Guskiewicz, a neuroscientist and internationally recognized expert on sport-related concussions. \u201cWe are beginning to develop those technologies here.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Carolina, Guskiewicz has dedicated much of his research to understanding how to prevent young athletes from receiving concussions on the field. One facet of his work consists of using accelerometers in helmets of high school football players. Through this, he has been able to track how modifying coaching methods can reduce risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really going to change the way they\u2019re blocking and tackling to see if that intervention can perhaps be a game changer in improving safety in youth sports,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Although helmets prevent a majority of severe traumatic brain injuries, Guskiewicz said, they don\u2019t completely protect the athletes \u2014 and the technology to create concussion-proof equipment doesn\u2019t yet exist.<\/p>\n

The key to reducing concussions will be a change of culture and modifying behavior, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cCulture change takes a long time,\u201d Guskiewicz said. \u201cKids didn\u2019t wear bicycle helmets 20 years ago, but they do now. It takes a generation to change that culture. We\u2019re trying to figure out ways that we can expedite the learning curve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although much of the research on concussions is done in the sports world, Mihalik has been taking the same information and technologies to study how the brain trauma is affecting service members.<\/p>\n

While the impairments can mean little impact in a normal person\u2019s daily life, for the elite group of soldiers he works with the consequences can be significant. By addressing concussion risks and treatment of service members, Mihalik\u2019s work can help improve force readiness.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, \u2018not right\u2019 means we can\u2019t focus in a classroom or maybe we don\u2019t see the pass as effectively,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2019Not right\u2019 for them is the difference between a hostage and a hostage taker in an operation. It\u2019s a very big issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Brandon Bieltz, UNC Office of Communications and Public Affairs<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Concussions on the playing field may steal the news headlines, but head trauma isn\u2019t just an issue for athletes \u2014 it can be a life-or-death situation for members of the military, as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12088,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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