Capacity Versus Performance of Volitional Head Turns After Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Biomechanics
• Rehabilitation Science

Background:

• Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) can affect motor control.
• Assessing head motion in mTBI is crucial for understanding functional deficits.
• Current methods often rely on laboratory-based assessments, which may not reflect real-world performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare head motion capacity in a laboratory setting with head motion performance in daily life for individuals with mTBI and healthy controls.
• To investigate the association between in-laboratory peak head motion metrics and near-maximal free-living movements.

Main Methods:

• An observational study involving 23 adults (10 with mTBI, 13 controls).
• Utilized wearable inertial sensors for 7 days of continuous monitoring in both laboratory and free-living environments.
• Measured in-laboratory head turn amplitude and peak angular velocity, alongside daily-life kinematics and variability.

Main Results:

• Individuals with mTBI exhibited slower in-laboratory head turns compared to controls (P = 0.006).
• No significant differences were found in daily-life head motion amplitude or velocity between groups.
• mTBI participants demonstrated significantly lower intra- and interday variability in daily movements, indicating more restricted patterns.

Conclusions:

• Despite reduced laboratory-measured head motion capacity, individuals with mTBI display comparable average daily-life kinematics to healthy adults.
• The reduced variability in daily movements suggests that individuals with mTBI may adopt constrained movement strategies.
• Integrating laboratory assessments with continuous free-living monitoring provides a more comprehensive characterization of motor behavior post-mTBI.