Monday, June 4, 2018, 11:30 AM – 1 PM EDT

Susan Margulies, Wallace H. Coulter Chair of the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at Georgia Tech and Emory University, and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Injury Biomechanics

“Pediatric Concussion Biomechanics: What We Need To Know”

Research in the area of pediatric concussion biomechanics is challenging, as no one knows better than Dr. Margulies, who’s been involved in this research for decades now.  Work with human subjects, even adults, is affected by issues with patients’ awareness of and willingness to report their symptoms. And though animal models can and do provide a controlled laboratory setting for relevant investigation, most animal models involve more severe brain injuries than concussion, limiting their applicability to the human situations we care most about. Of late, work with animals is proving more applicable, however.  And emerging research in objective, involuntary neurofunctional metrics and biomarkers is bridging the gap between human and animal research and providing important insights into the biomechanics of concussion, offering a rational foundation for both prevention and treatment.