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A Headform for Testing Helmet and Mouthguard Sensors that Measure Head Impact Severity in Football Players

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Abstract

A headform is needed to validate and compare helmet- and mouthguard-based sensors that measure the severity and direction of football head impacts. Our goal was to quantify the dynamic response of a mandibular load-sensing headform (MLSH) and to compare its performance and repeatability to an unmodified Hybrid III headform. Linear impactors in two independent laboratories were used to strike each headform at six locations at 5.5 m/s and at two locations at 3.6 and 7.4 m/s. Impact severity was quantified using peak linear acceleration (PLA) and peak angular acceleration (PAA), and direction was quantified using the azimuth and elevation of the PLA. Repeatability was quantified using coefficients of variation (COV) and standard deviations (SD). Across all impacts, PLA was 1.6 ± 1.8 g higher in the MLSH than in the Hybrid III (p = 0.002), but there were no differences in PAA (p = 0.25), azimuth (p = 0.43) and elevation (p = 0.11). Both headforms exhibited excellent or acceptable repeatability for PLA (HIII:COV = 2.1 ± 0.8%, MLSH:COV = 2.0 ± 1.2%, p = 0.98), but site-specific repeatability ranging from excellent to poor for PAA (HIII:COV = 7.2 ± 4.0%, MLSH:COV = 8.3 ± 5.8%, p = 0.58). Direction SD were generally <1° and did not vary between headforms. Overall, both headforms are similarly suitable for validating PLA in sensors that measure head impact severity in football players, however their utility for validating sensor PAA values varies with impact location.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the National Football League (NFL). Author KMG approved the protocol and publication of these results on behalf of the NFL. The authors wish to acknowledge Chris Withnall and Michael Wonnacott of Biokinetics and Associates, and Dave Halstead and Elizabeth McCalley of Southern Impact Research Center (SIRC) for their assistance in refining the protocol and acquiring the data. SWM is partly supported by a grant R49-CE001495 from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Author GPS owns shares in a forensic consulting company that may benefit from being associated with this study. Author KMG is a member of the NFL’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee and Chair of the Subcommittee on Equipment and Playing Rules. The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest. Biokinetics and Associates Ltd. is the manufacturer of the MLSH headform and half of the data presented here was gathered in their lab. All tests at Biokinetics and Associates Ltd. were conducted under the supervision of author GPS, and they had no hand in post-processing these data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MEA Forensic Engineers & Scientists, 11-11151 Horseshoe Way, Richmond, BC, V7A 4S5, Canada

    Gunter P. Siegmund & Alyssa L. DeMarco

  2. School of Kinesiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Gunter P. Siegmund

  3. Matthew A. Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center, Department of Exercise and Sport Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Kevin M. Guskiewicz

  4. Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Stephen W. Marshall

  5. MEA Forensic Engineers & Scientists, Laguna Hills, CA, USA

    Stephanie J. Bonin

Authors
  1. Gunter P. Siegmund
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  2. Kevin M. Guskiewicz
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  3. Stephen W. Marshall
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  4. Alyssa L. DeMarco
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  5. Stephanie J. Bonin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gunter P. Siegmund.

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Associate Editor Stefan M Duma oversaw the review of this article.

Appendix A: Head Position and Orientation for Each Impact Location

Appendix A: Head Position and Orientation for Each Impact Location

See Table A1 and Fig. A1.

Table A1 Position and orientation of head and neck on the linear impactor table (see reference frame defined in Fig. A1)
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Figure A1
figure 7

Schematic showing the definition of the angles α and β on the linear impactor table. Headform shown at angles α = β = 0° (Figure courtesy of Biokinetics and Associates Ltd.)

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Siegmund, G.P., Guskiewicz, K.M., Marshall, S.W. et al. A Headform for Testing Helmet and Mouthguard Sensors that Measure Head Impact Severity in Football Players. Ann Biomed Eng 42, 1834–1845 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-014-1052-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-014-1052-2

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