Funded projects

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  Dr Vickie Shim

  University of Auckland

  Project grant - $283,185 - Funding Round: 2025 B

  Defining the limits: A normative model of brain strain response to guide objective head impact assessment

  To be able to assess brain injury risk in young people who play contact sports, it is important to know what is normal, if there is a cumulative effect of multiple head impacts, and how this risk changes for different people. This project will use MRI brain scans from healthy young people who do not play contact sports, to create a “normal” digital model. The model will learn from information gathered through instrumented mouthguards in youth rugby, converting the recorded signals into brain impact measures and forecasting the likelihood of injury from both isolated and cumulative head impacts. It will complement current sports concussion management, supporting decisions on monitoring, training and rest periods.