# Validation and Comparison of Instrumented Mouthguards for Measuring Head Kinematics and Assessing Brain Deformation in Football Impacts

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.01903 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.01903/

## Key facts

- Cited by 8 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 5 Aug 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [Predictive Factors of Kinematics in Traumatic Brain Injury from Head Impacts Based on Statistical Interpretation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.05020/) (2021)
- [Machine-learning-based head impact subtyping based on the spectral densities of the measurable head kinematics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.09082/) (2021)
- [Rapidly and accurately estimating brain strain and strain rate across head impact types with transfer learning and data fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.13577/) (2021)
- [Data-driven decomposition of brain dynamics with principal component analysis in different types of head impacts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.14116/) (2021)
- [Kinematics clustering enables head impact subtyping for better traumatic brain injury prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.03498/) (2021)
- [Denoising instrumented mouthguard measurements of head impact kinematics with a convolutional neural network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.09832/) (2022)
- [Toward more accurate and generalizable brain deformation estimators for traumatic brain injury detection with unsupervised domain adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.05255/) (2023)
- [Identification of head impact locations, speeds, and force based on head kinematics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.08177/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Because of the relatively rigid coupling between the upper dentition and the skull, instrumented mouthguards have been shown to be a viable way of measuring head impact kinematics for assisting in understanding the underlying biomechanics of concussions. This has led various companies and institutions to further develop instrumented mouthguards. However, their use as a research tool for understanding concussive impacts makes quantification of their accuracy critical, especially given the conflicting results from various recent studies. Here we present a study that uses a pneumatic impactor to deliver impacts characteristic to football to a Hybrid III headform, in order to validate and compare five of the most commonly used instrumented mouthguards. We found that all tested mouthguards gave accurate measurements for the peak angular acceleration (mean relative error, MRE < 13%), the peak angular velocity (MRE < 8%), brain injury criteria values (MRE < 13%) and brain deformation (described as maximum principal strain and fiber strain, calculated by a convolutional neural network based brain model, MRE < 9%). Finally, we found that the accuracy of the measurement varies with the impact locations yet is not sensitive to the impact velocity for the most part.