Tom Talavage and Eric Nauman

Areas of Research: Biomedical Imaging, Biomechanics, Neural Engineering

Project: Modeling and Prediction of Short- and Long-Term Brain Injury Due to Repetitive Sub-Concussive Trauma in High School Contact Sport Athletes

• Neuroimaging and neuropsychological testing are used to evaluate functional and neurometabolic changes associated with repeated blows to the head in high school football and soccer.
• Novel telemetry and protective measures being developed to enhance safety.
• Computational modeling of how blows to the head relate to observed changes used to predict risks and assist coaches and athletic trainers to reduce injury risk while maximizing game-time availability.

Recruitment Needs:

• Looking for 1 to 2 new PHD students with experience in signal and image processing and a strong interest in the neurosciences, with a focus on functional MRI (fMRI).
• Also looking for 1 new PHD student with an interest in computational modeling of the brain.

PNG Website: www.purdue.edu/research/png