If you act like this after receiving a blow to your head, you should suspect a concussion.

A new study has found that involuntary shaking of the head from side to side after receiving a blow to the head is a sign of a concussion. This is what CNN reported on the 23rd (local time) based on a paper by American researchers published in Diagnostics.

Researchers from Mass General Brigham (MGB), an American medical research institute, and the Concussion Legacy Foundation (CLF) said, “We specifically define a concussion as shaking the head sideways at a rate of 2 to 8 Hz (2 to 8 times per second) after impact.” “It is defined as,” he said. This is reminiscent of cartoon characters depicting birds flying in circles when they shake their heads.

The researchers said adding this to formal evaluation guidelines could help significantly reduce the number of undiagnosed concussions. “There is a very high public understanding that this movement is associated with concussions, but it is a movement that is not included in the guidelines or medical literature,” said Dan Naneshiva, a professor of medicine at Harvard University and co-chair of sports concussion research at Mass General Brigham and lead author of the study.

To determine the relationship between this behavior, which was named ‘SHAAKE’ after the abbreviation for ‘spontaneous headshake after a kinematic event’, and concussions, researchers conducted tests on high school, college, and semi-professional teams. We conducted a survey of hundreds of young adults who ran.

As a result, the researchers found that the majority of young athletes were familiar with this gesture and had experienced it themselves at least once. People surveyed said they suffered a concussion after taking a shake in nearly three out of four cases.

Although concussions reported by survey participants were often self-diagnosed, the underlying reasons for head shaking (e.g., disorientation or confusion, changes in spatial perception) generally matched symptoms known to be associated with concussions. Professor Julie Stamm of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW Madison), who reviewed the paper, said, “Just a few decades ago, it was thought that a concussion required a loss of consciousness, but now it is common knowledge that even if these are not serious symptoms, there are more subtle signs. “He pointed out, “The severity of symptoms does not always match the severity of the injury.”

Based on survey responses, the researchers found that formally recognizing shakes as a sign of a concussion could help identify up to one-third of undiagnosed concussions. “Our data shows that shaking, along with grabbing the head after contact, being slow to get up or losing balance, is a reliable sign of a concussion,” said Professor Daneshvar. “We need to get it diagnosed,” he said.

After it was belatedly revealed that Tua Tagovailoa, quarterback for the 2022 American National Football League (NFL) Miami Dolphins, collapsed during a game due to ataxia caused by the aftereffects of a concussion, the NFL and the NFL Players Association agreed to revise the concussion protocol for players suffering from ataxia. It was decided to limit the player’s participation in games. The researchers pointed out that Tagovailoa shook several times during the game and said that based on this, a concussion diagnosis could have been made sooner.

“The NFL’s medical committee regularly reviews new research, and we are in contact with the authors of this study to discuss these findings with experts,” said Dr. Alan Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer. “We will review our own data to see if we can replicate these findings.”

The paper can be found at the following link: