Examination of Balance, Vestibular, and Ocular Functions and Activity Following Concussion

To address study hypotheses, the investigators plan to recruit subjects who have been diagnosed with a concussion by participating sports medicine physicians at the Boston Children's Hospital Sports Concussion Clinic. If patients elect to participate, they will undergo their regularly scheduled clinical examination along with two testing components requiring less than 15 minutes of additional time to complete: an instrumented gait balance assessment, a vestibular-ocular motor screen, and a weekly activity survey. Participants with concussion will be matched with control subjects who meet similar demographic characteristics and report to the clinic for other orthopedic injuries that do not affect brain function, gait, or either lower extremity.

During the assessment, participants will complete a protocol which measures balance control while walking and simultaneously completing a cognitive task, a vestibular-ocular motor ability, and physical and cognitive activity levels. As a need exists to develop protocols which utilize inexpensive, objective, and sensitive measurements to track concussion recovery, this study seeks to incorporate innovative and clinically feasible methods into the clinical examination of concussion.

Inclusion criteria

• Age between 12 and 40 years
• No history of concussion in the past year, and no lifetime history of more than 3 concussions
• Diagnosed with concussion within the past 21 days (concussion group only)

Exclusion criteria

• Lower extremity deficiency or injury, which may affect normal balance or gait
• History of permanent memory loss
• Diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), learning disability, Down syndrome, or developmental delay