BRAINWAVES

crash victims while working as an EMT for a year.

In 2011, she joined radiology professor Dr. Joseph Maldjian’s lab at Wake Forest University as a graduate student, two years after the NFL first publicly acknowledged that concussions could lead to long-term problems for players. Davenport and Maldjian began thinking about concussion-related brain injuries in another, younger group of athletes.

“The NFL was just the tip of the iceberg, where there’s 2000, 3000 players,” said Davenport, now an assistant professor of radiology at UT Southwestern. “But then at the youth level, there’s millions of players.”

Maldjian moved to UT Southwestern in 2015, and Davenport followed in 2016.

An analysis of concussion rates in 20 high school sports from 20132018 found that boys’ football had the highest concussion rate: 10.4 concussions per 10,000 athletes.

Concussions are typically diagnosed using symptom checklists and behavioral tests that examine a player’s memory, motor function or cognition, according to Davenport. She said these tests can be subjective and players sometimes don’t tell doctors their symptoms.

Sitting out a game can be costly for young players who have devoted their lives to the sport.

“It’s very simple to say, if you think you’re hurt, sit it out,” she said. “But for a lot of these kids and even for the pro players, it can mean scholarships, it can mean life-changing opportunities for them.”

Without looking inside the brain, Davenport said, it’s tough to know how long concussion recovery can take.

Texas high school football players who had concussions may not practice or compete until they have a written statement from a physician confirming that they can safely return to the field, according to Texas state law. They must also complete a return to play protocol established by the school district’s Concussion Oversight Team.

Abnormal brain waves

Davenport looked into previous concussion research and found a specific brain wave that spiked during unusual circumstances: delta waves.

“They’re these nice, slow waves that happen in the brain,” Davenport said.

As we grow older, Davenport said delta waves become less common, except in deep sleep. It’s unusual to see them in the brains of awake adults.

Davenport examined research from two University of California San Diego professors that found concussed combat veterans had higher levels of delta waves. In veterans whose concussion symptoms lasted longer than expected, the delta waves were localized to the brain area where they had their symptoms. Davenport wondered whether delta waves might increase in youth football players after they had a concussion as well.