Grant: Project Grant

Concussion is a common injury in children and adolescents, affecting over 1.5 million youth in North America each year, with rates rising dramatically over the past decade. While most children recover within four weeks, about one-third continue to experience symptoms-including headaches, dizziness, trouble concentrating, mood changes, and sleep problems-that can last for months and interfere with school, social life, and sports. Currently, we lack reliable ways to diagnose concussions or predict which children are at risk for prolonged symptoms. Available treatments are also limited in effectiveness, making it crucial to conduct more research to better understand what happens in the brain after a concussion. One key factor in concussion may be the blood-brain barrier (BBB), a structure that protects the brain. Disruption of the BBB is thought to contribute to physical (e.g., headaches and dizziness), cognitive, and emotional difficulties, but studying it has been challenging because current imaging techniques require invasive contrast agents and long, expensive scans. Our study will use a novel, non-invasive MRI technique (DP-pCASL) to measure BBB function in adolescents with concussion. We will compare BBB integrity in children with concussion, children with other injuries, and healthy children, and examine how changes in the BBB relate to blood flow, brain connectivity, blood markers, mood, cognition, and symptoms over time. This research could provide the first non-invasive and faster method to explain why symptoms may last longer. It will help physicians monitor brain changes after concussion, and help researchers find new treatments -ultimately helping children recover faster and fully return to school, sports, and daily life.