In the NFL, the risk of concussion is far greater than for almost any other sport. While continued improvements to helmet design and stronger regulations against dangerous play may help limit such risk, one serious issue has yet to be resolved—the return to play.
Immense pressure is put on injured players to return to the game as fast as possible, which may ultimately increase the risk of re-injury. Should a player recovering from a concussion return to play too soon, re-injury to the brain could potentially result in permanent mental damage. Thus, it is critical that players who are recovering from a concussion be cleared to play only when their brain has completely healed. Although it may be difficult to properly assess mental recovery, there exists a company that believes it is up to the challenge.
CogniSens, a Montreal-based company that specializes in neurobiological sciences and technological applications, has partnered with the University of Montreal’s Psycho-physics and Perception Laboratory to develop the NeuroTracker—a state-of-the-art neurological technology designed to increase athletic mental function and performance.
The NeuroTracker’s purpose is to strengthen cognitive awareness in athletes. To do so, the NeuroTracker relies upon multiple object tracking—or, MOT. Using a three-dimensional screen, the NeuroTracker projects several yellow spheres in front of the user. Out of a total of eight, four of the spheres are highlighted in orange for one second, before reverting back to yellow (and becoming identical to the rest).
Then, all of the spheres begin moving in seemingly random patterns throughout the screen for a total of eight seconds. Users are asked to track the four initial spheres for the entire time, and then identify them once the exercise is over. This process is repeated twenty times within one session, and takes approximately five minutes in total.
By requiring athletes to distribute their attentional resources to multiple objects at one time, the NeuroTracker trains the user’s Biological Motion Perception, which is the ability to analyze body and limb motion in order to predict changes in action and direction within an environment. Because the NeuroTracker overloads an athlete’s ability to process complex motion, repeated sessions ultimately yield increases in mental function by targeting the brain’s neuroplasticity.
In other words, the brain adapts to the environment created by the NeuroTracker by growing new neural networks, in order to increase its ability to efficiently process the cognitive demands placed on it. Theoretically, the process is similar to how muscles improve to meet performance demands when put under physical stress. However, in the case of the brain, we observe improved mental function instead of physical change.
As stated within the CogniSens website, the NeuroTracker addresses the full performance spectrum from sub-normal performance degradation due to injury or neural disorder to above-normal performance enhancement through elite training. Data on the NeuroTracker supports this claim, by showing that the system does in fact improve athletic mental skill, including spatial awareness and dynamic motion processing.
For pro sports leagues, the NeuroTracker may be a blessing to player mental safety. According to their website, CogniSens is currently collaborating with the NFL, NCAA and NHL, among other professional sports organizations around the world.
Should a league with concussion issues, such as the NFL choose to employ the CogniSens system, players in post-concussion recovery would undergo NeuroTracker testing in order to diagnose their mental function. By using the NeuroTracker, doctors would be able to obtain baseline measures of a player’s perceptual-cognitive skill, which is known to be massively disrupted as a result of concussions.
Additionally, the NeuroTracker could be used to accelerate brain recovery by incorporating it into post-concussion training sessions.
Overall, this testing has the potential to greatly improve the ability to determine whether players are fit to return to play, and would limit the risk of clearing players who have not fully recovered. In this sense, the NeuroTracker represents yet another way technology is being used to advance sports performance and safety.