According to the researchers, approximately 72% of athletes – and 92% of football players – report making this particular movement after a concussion.
Have you seen cartoon characters shake their heads back and forth after a strong blow to get rid of the little stars or birds circling around their heads? It appears that the same movement can also help coaches spot a concussion that occurs on the field.
According to the researchers, about 72 percent of athletes – and 92 percent of football players – report actually performing this movement after a concussion.
These SHAAKEs (Spontaneous Headshake After a Kinematic Event), as they are called, can help detect up to 33% of concussions that might otherwise go unnoticed, researchers say.
“Sports and medical organizations should immediately add SHAAKE to their lists of potential concussion indicators,” said researcher Chris Nowinski, co-founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation.
A SHAKE occurs within seconds or minutes of the blow, researchers say.
People shake their heads from side to side two to eight times per second, usually for less than two seconds, and do not try to communicate nonverbally with someone else.
Nowinski identified SHAAKE as a possible sign of concussion when an American football player suffered a concussion during a game on September 25, 2022. The player quickly shook his head from side to side twice after hitting his head on the ground during a match. Then he tripped and collapsed.
Doctors on the field attributed the collapse to a previous back injury, so the player was not diagnosed with concussion. However, a few days later, in another match, he again suffered a concussion, lost consciousness and was taken off the field on a stretcher.
Nearly 350 current and former athletes between the ages of 18 and 29 were interviewed for the study. They were shown videos of SHAAKE examples and asked about their related experiences.
Nearly 7 in 10 (69%) said they had made the move, while 93% said they had done so in conjunction with a concussion at least once.
“In the athletes we studied, about three out of four SHAAKES occurred due to a concussion,” said lead researcher Dr. Dan Daneshvar, co-chair of the Division of Sports Concussions at Mass General Brigham.
“Based on our data, SHAAKE is a reliable sign that a concussion may have occurred, as is an athlete clutching their head after contact, being slow to get up, or losing balance,” he added Dansehvar.
“Studies consistently show that an unacceptably high number of concussions go unreported by athletes, either because they don’t realize they’ve suffered a concussion or because they desperately don’t want to be removed from the game,” said researcher Dr. Robert Cantu , MD director of the Concussion Legacy Foundation. “It is critical that we take any potential signs of concussion seriously to ensure the health and well-being of athletes,” he added.
The new study was published October 23 in the journal Diagnostics.