Head Noise: Helmet no defence against concussion

Neuroscientist Alan Pearce busts the biggest concussion myth of all; that helmets will protect you.

Neuroscientist Alan Pearce.

A helmet won’t protect the brain from concussion; that’s the biggest myth around the injury that must be dispelled, says neuro­scientist Alan Pearce.

In the latest episode of The Australian’s podcast investigation series, Head Noise, Professor Pearce tells host and former NRL great James Graham about why helmets won’t stop a player from suffering concussions.

“We’ve known for decades that helmets don’t protect the brain from concussion,” Professor Pearce says. “The helmet is there to protect the skull bone from fractures and lacerations but when there’s an impact, the amount of force that a helmet can absorb isn’t enough for the brain tissue to stop from moving.

“This sounds a bit macabre but if I opened up your head and pulled out your very large brain, I could squeeze it through my fingers. It’s that delicate. And so you have a lot of movement going on that can stretch. So that’s putting tension on the brain cells, but also shear; that’s where the brain cells sort of tear against each other.

“And the other thing too is that most people know that we have the grey matter on the outside and the white matter on the inside. And the white matter is sort of white because it has an insulation called myelin. Now, that myelin actually changes the density of the white matter part of the brain compared to the grey matter, so the brain actually moves at two different speeds when hit.

“And so that actually puts more stress and strain. So helmets, whether they’re hard shell or soft shells, aren’t able to absorb enough impact for micro damage or even concussion not to occur.”

He says there is a possibility that helmets actually increase the risk of concussion in that they give a child or an adult player a false sense of security.

“I call it the ‘superhero complex’; they put the helmet on, they think they’re invincible, but also the opposition, consciously or subconsciously, will go harder at the player because they have a helmet (and they think) ‘I can go in a bit harder or I can be a little bit sloppy with my technique because they’re protected’.

“There is very limited research, but there is some stuff from America where they did look at helmeted American football versus non-helmeted American football and put some sensors on behind the ear. And what they found was that when they played American football without the helmets, there was on average 10 G forces less impact to the head.”

Episode five of The Australian’s podcast investigation Head Noise also explores the issue of contact and children’s sport – with most neurological experts spoken to by The Australian pushing for tackling to be dis­allowed until the age of 14.

Professor Ian Hickie, an eminent psychiatrist, the former chief executive of Beyond Blue and now co-director of health and policy at the Brain and Mind Centre at Sydney University, says collision for kids needs to be minimised.

“Sport drives better mood, it’s good for kids’ attention, so there’s a lot of brain benefits from sport,” he says. “However, it’d be really nice to protect their heads during that whole period.

“We’ve got to look at ways in which the collision aspect is minimised,” Professor Hickie says.

“Tackling and contact and the way games are played, like the way my kids are playing touch football, rather than tackling football. My own kids have played basketball and other things where there is a lot of contact, actually, but you know there’s absolutely the maximum protection against head contact … so I think there’s an age thing for younger kids and certainly through into the teenage period that you’re trying to delay as much as possible.

“Then in the games themselves, you’re raising another important issue. They’ve maximised collision, they’ve maximised the thud, in recent years, big 120kg … and the main way is to crash through, you know. It’s not a skill-based thing anymore. It’s the size, the size of the collision.”