Current NCAA concussion assessments are used uniformly across male and female athletes, despite evidence that the sexes may experience and report concussion symptoms differently. Using data from 1,021 NCAA athletes who completed the SCAT3 Symptom Severity Checklist, this study applied multiple multivariate methods (EGA, PCA, EFA, LDA, Rasch PCM) to examine the test’s underlying structure and identify gender-sensitive items. Analyses revealed a four-factor structure explaining 62% of the variance, and LDA showed a significant multivariate difference between male and female symptom profiles. Rasch item-level results indicated that while a few symptoms were reported similarly, nine items showed males endorsing higher severity—despite males reporting lower overall symptom severity scores. This pattern suggests males may report fewer symptoms but at higher perceived intensity, whereas females may more readily endorse emotional and physical symptoms. Findings highlight meaningful gender differences in concussion symptom reporting and underscore the need to account for sex-specific patterns when interpreting assessments and making return-to-play decisions.

Rachel Edelstein, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Virginia

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) during pregnancy (gravida TBI; gTBI), including TBI resulting from intimate partner violence (IPV), poses significant yet understudied risks to fetal and early childhood development. Preclinical findings show that diffuse TBI in pregnant mice disrupts early neurobehavioral outcomes in offspring, including reduced ultrasonic vocalization amplitude, lower weaning weight, and decreased synaptic density, indicating early deficits in communication, growth, and cortical maturation. In parallel to these preclinical results, population-level data from Arizona reveal children (0–6 years) exposed in utero to maternal IPV or TBI have increased odds of perinatal complications, infections, endocrine disorders, and adverse social or environmental circumstances. Together, these results highlight converging evidence that TBI during pregnancy, whether experimentally induced or occurring through IPV has measurable consequences on early offspring health. This integrated view supports the need for early screening, intervention, and maternal support to mitigate neurodevelopmental and health risks in exposed children.

Brenda E. Lujan M.S., Graduate Student, University of Arizona

Physical medicine and rehabilitation research has addressed the notion that traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the beginning of an ongoing, perhaps lifelong, process that impacts multiple organ systems and negatively affects healthspan, defined as lifespan spent without chronic disease burdens. This presentation aims to provide a novel perspective for understanding TBI as a chronic disease using the Allostatic Load framework, which captures the physiological ‘wear and tear’ resulting from repeated or sustained stress responses. Leveraging evidence from neuroscience, endocrinology, and psychophysiology, this presentation will describe how TBI functions as a potent physiological stressor that disrupts adaptive regulatory systems leading to multi-system dysfunction. Mechanisms after TBI leading to allostatic load, measurements of allostatic load, and analytical techniques using machine learning that can map allostatic load trajectories for predicting healthspan will be discussed. Together, the Allostatic Load framework may provide a coherent model for understanding the cumulative biological burden of TBI, highlighting opportunities for developing preventive and therapeutic strategies for improving healthspan.

Evan D. Feigel, Ph.D., Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, HealthSpan Lab, Dept. of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Mass General Brigham

How can storytelling drive medical advocacy in how we understand, talk about, and support individuals with brain injury and invisible disabilities? What does youth-led advocacy look like? How can we create a tangible change in the brain injury community? For young scientists and trainees, understanding how advocacy, education, and narrative medicine intersect with public health and policy is essential to translating bench and clinical discoveries into sustainable impact. This presentation will equip participants with (1) a recognition of the psychosocial and emotional dimensions of TBI that must inform care based on quotes taken from Synapse Storybook and experiences facilitating virtual peer support groups; (2) an understanding of how narrative medicine can bridge survivor experience with clinical training; and (3) an actionable model for how young investigators and future clinicians can organize advocacy within their own institutions and advocacy in the TBI community. By sharing a scalable model of youth-led engagement, this presentation demonstrates how students and early-career professionals can build community-based initiatives in the brain injury community.

Claire Zhu, Undergraduate Student, President of Columbia Synapse; Director of Programming of Synapse National, Columbia University

We use CHIMERA impact-acceleration model to investigate how mild TBI reshapes brain function at behavioural, molecular, and cellular levels. By integrating blood biomarker profiling with Visium spatial transcriptomics and histological validation, we map region- and cell-type–specific injury responses across brain. This spatially resolved framework reveals how TBI perturbs the molecular architecture of the brain and underscores the power of spatial omics for advancing TBI research.

Mehwish Anwer, MPhil, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, Wellington Lab, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia

This presentation introduces a kinematically defined mouse model of repetitive mild traumatic brain injury (rmTBI) built around a custom weight-drop apparatus with a solenoid-based rebound arrestor, high-speed videography, and accelerometry to quantify head motion on every impact. Adult male and female mice received either a single or nine-impact protocol, enabling precise linkage of linear and angular acceleration profiles to acute recovery, olfaction-dependent behavior, and microglial pathology. The model produces highly reproducible impacts without skull fracture or overt hemorrhage yet induces concussion-like delays in righting reflex and progressive deficits in a buried food task following nine impacts. Immunohistochemical analysis of Iba1 and CD68, quantified with mixed-effects modeling, reveals sex-dependent microglial activation, particularly in corpus callosum, neocortex, and olfactory tubercle. Together, these data establish a practical platform for probing injury thresholds, regional vulnerability, and candidate interventions in repetitive head trauma.

Anthony Crum, Postdoctoral Associate, University of Rochester Medical Center

Mild TBI (mTBI) can lead to chronic cognitive and other behavioral deficits, largely driven by secondary neuroinflammation, disruption of neuronal metabolism, and dysregulation of the noradrenergic system—a key regulator of arousal, attention, and stress responses. This study investigated the therapeutic potential of methylphenidate (MP) in mitigating mTBI-induced cognition and anxiety-related deficits, with a focus on the utility of longitudinal, non-invasive imaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) and resting state functional MRI (rsfMRI).

Kelena Klippel, Graduate Research Assistant, University of Florida College of Medicine

Microglia are highly dynamic CNS immune cells that rapidly respond to traumatic brain injury (TBI), yet most studies rely on static histological snapshots. To overcome this limitation, we developed a miniscope-based approach that enables time-lapse imaging of fluorescent microglia in freely behaving eGFP transgenic mice. Using baseline and post-injury imaging in the same animal, we tracked acute microglial reactions to closed-head injury. Preliminary findings show increased microglial soma movement, greater cell numbers, and higher fluorescence intensity following injury, consistent with dynamic microglia activation. These results establish the feasibility of continuous in vivo microglia imaging after TBI and provide a foundation for unique insight to dynamic pathophysiology after TBI.

Daniel Griffiths, Research Area Specialist Lead, University of Michigan