Kinesiology researchers at the College of Public Health are leading the way in concussion and traumatic brain injury research. Three papers recently published by Kinesiology Ph.D. candidate Keisuke Kawata and other Temple researchers examine new ways to detect the severity of a concussion and to study its effects on sensory and brain function.

In a study recently published in the International Journal of Sports Medicine, Kawata and other Temple researchers studied repeated head impacts and their effects on eye movement in soccer players. The team found that even mild impacts temporarily affected the eyes’ ability to track objects. Kawata and his colleagues then conducted a similar study of college football players. The results, just published in JAMA Ophthalmology, suggest that even when a head impact is not severe enough to cause a concussion, it can still affect important eye functions. Another paper just published by Kawata and others in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews examines current research on substances in the blood called biomarkers, which the body may release in response to head injuries.

Kawata and his colleagues argue that a better understanding of the link between biomarkers and brain injury would pave the way for a blood test to diagnose concussion—which could be far more reliable than current methods that depend on patients to self-report their symptoms.