Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Concussions are a common brain injury in teenagers that can have negative effects on physical and mental health. There is no test or biological maker to clearly determine when a concussion has occurred or when a person has fully recovered after concussion, making it difficult for doctors to identify and treat concussions. Electroencephalography (EEG) is a tool that records electrical signals generated by the brain. EEG may be able to uncover a biological marker of concussion. Research shows that the brain's electrical signals change after a concussion, but these studies were mainly completed with adults in laboratories at a single test session. In order to determine if EEG may be helpful in identifying and managing youth concussion, researchers must study EEG in teenagers with concussion at important medical time points and compare EEG findings to results on common concussions tests used by medical professionals. We will have teenagers with concussion and healthy teenagers complete an EEG and common concussion tests three times over 6-months. Our goals in this study are to: 1) determine which EEG outcomes can accurately separate between teenagers with concussion and healthy teenagers; 2) describe the changes in EEG outcomes in healthy and concussed teenagers over the 6-month testing period; and 3) assess if EEG outcomes collected in teenagers early following concussion can predict who will have on-going symptoms one month after injury. These findings are the first step to improving the ways that medical professionals identify and treat concussion. This can keep teenagers with concussion safe by helping them avoid activities where there is a high-risk of sustaining a second concussion, creating better guidelines for returning to school and sporting activities, and providing individualized rehabilitation sooner after injury to reduce the negative effects of concussion.