Effect of neck musculature on head kinematic response following blunt impact
Increased neck musculature has been hypothesized to lower the risk of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), but this lacks experimental evidence. Here, it was hypothesized that due to low initial coupling between the head and cervical spine and the low moment of resistance supplied by the cervical musculature, increasing strength or activation of cervical musculature will have minimal effect on head kinematics. LS-Dyna was used to model impacts using the Duke University Head and Neck Model (DUHNM) coupled with the National Crash Analysis Center (NCAC) Hybrid III head and torso. Four impact types were tested with relaxed and tensed musculature conditions at eight positions on the head, totaling 64 impacts. To compare differences in mTBI risk, peak resultant linear acceleration, peak resultant angular acceleration, Head Injury Criterion, and Head Impact Power were used. To determine significance, the difference between relaxed and tensed muscle cases was compared to the difference between mild and severe impact metric values derived from literature. None of the injury metrics showed differences between the relaxed and tensed neck condition greater than the effect size.
