Journal of neuroscience research
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To guide development of safety equipment that reduces sports-related head injuries, we sought to enhance predictive relationships between head movement and acute axonal injury severity. The severity of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is influenced by the magnitude and direction of head kinematics. Previous studies have demonstrated correlation between rotational head kinematics and symptom severity in the adult. ⋯ Rotational Work (RotWork) was the best significant predictor of traumatic axonal injury in both newborn and pre-adolescent piglets following head rotations in the axial, coronal, and sagittal planes. An improvement over current metrics, we find that RotWork, which incorporates head rotation rate, direction, and brain shape, significantly enhanced acute traumatic axonal injury prediction. For similar injury extent, the RotWork threshold is lower for the newborn piglet than the pre-adolescent.