Indiana University will be using SyncThink’s medical device, EYE-SYNC, for a study on lower-impact sub-concussive head blows. The study will be conducted by assistant professor Keisuke Kawata, who has been working on sub-concussion studies and has drawn attention in the linkage between eye movement and repetitive impacts in football players.
“Detection of subclinical neural impairments following repetitive sub-concussive head impacts is a study that’s extremely important in the medical and sports verticals,” Daniel Beeler, CTO of SyncThink, said in a statement. “From a sideline setting any added studies and information that can be immediately accessed will assist in keeping our athletes safer and help with recovery plans or return-to-play decision.”
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Kawata’s study will work to fill the void in the area of sub-concussive head impacts. The EYE-SYNC device — one that uses eye-tracking technology to monitor eye movement in a virtual reality environment — will provide metrics in his research for ocular-motor perturbation after sub-concussive head impacts. SyncThink will assist in any technological and analytical processes during the study.
Kawata will use the EYE-SYNC divide to study sub-concussive effects in competitive divers as well as using a soccer-heading model. Changes is eye movement parameters will be correlated with sustained head impact kinematics.
The study is set to begin in February 2017 and will be further extended to high school football and ice hockey in the near future.
“By tracking sub-concussive impacts combined with various parameters, we have witnessed a glimpse, but plausible hope that some modalities could predict a concussion before it occurs,” Kawata said in a statement. “It is of my priority to establish brain-injury specific objective markers that to ensure soldiers and athletes’ safety while sustaining highest level of performance.”