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Updated: Aug 12, 2025
Development of an Uncomplicated Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Model Modified by Weight-Drop Method and Evidenced by Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Published on: April 11, 2025
Volitional Head Movement Deficits and Alterations in Gait Speed Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
Brian J Loyd1, Leland E Dibble, Margaret M Weightman
1School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, University of Montana, Missoula (Dr Loyd); Department of Physical Therapy and Athletic Training, University of Utah, Salt Lake City (Drs Dibble and Pelo); Courage Kenny Research Center-Allina Health, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Dr Weightman); Army-Baylor University Doctoral Program in Physical Therapy, Fort Sam Houston, Texas (Dr Hoppes); Department of Physical Therapy, Texas State University, Round Rock (Dr Lester); School of Medicine, Oregon Health & Sciences University, Portland (Dr King); and Department of Health and Kinesiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City (Dr Fino).
Objective:
Unconstrained head motion is necessary to scan for visual cues during navigation, for minimizing threats, and to allow regulation of balance. Following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) people may experience alterations in head movement kinematics, which may be pronounced during gait tasks. Gait speed may also be impacted by the need to turn the head while walking in these individuals. The aim of this study was to examine head kinematics during dynamic gait tasks and the interaction between kinematics and gait speed in people with persistent symptoms after mTBI.
Setting:
A clinical assessment laboratory.
Design:
A cross-sectional, matched-cohort study.
Participants:
Forty-five individuals with a history of mTBI and 46 age-matched control individuals.
Main Measures:
All participants were tested at a single time point and completed the Functional Gait Assessment (FGA) while wearing a suite of body-mounted inertial measurement units (IMUs). Data collected from the IMUs were gait speed, and peak head rotation speed and amplitude in the yaw and pitch planes during the FGA-1, -3, and -4 tasks.
Results:
Participants with mTBI demonstrated significantly slower head rotations in the yaw ( P = .0008) and pitch ( P = .002) planes. They also demonstrated significantly reduced amplitude of yaw plane head rotations ( P < .0001), but not pitch plane head rotations ( P = .84). Participants with mTBI had significantly slower gait speed during normal gait (FGA-1) ( P < .001) and experienced a significantly greater percent decrease in gait speed than healthy controls when walking with yaw plane head rotations (FGA-3) ( P = .02), but not pitch plane head rotations (FGA-4) ( P = .11).
Conclusions:
Participants with mTBI demonstrated smaller amplitudes and slower speeds of yaw plane head rotations and slower speeds of pitch plane head rotations during gait. Additionally, people with mTBI walked slower during normal gait and demonstrated a greater reduction in gait speed while walking with yaw plane head rotations compared with healthy controls.
