How many times have you given your head a shake about after a heavy impact to check you’re okay? It turns out this movement, which scientists are aptly calling a SHAAKE, could actually be a viable indicator of concussion.
Shaking your head side-to-side after an impact is a classic movie response to an injury, but has never been studied or noted as a sign of concussion – until now.
Researchers at Boston University’s School of Medicine in the US surveyed 347 American and Canadian athletes aged 18 to 29. The athletes watched videos of SHAAKEs (Spontaneous Headshake After A Kinematic Event) before being asked about their own experience.
According to the study, published in Diagnostics, 69 per cent reported having done a SHAAKE at least once, and of those, 93 per cent said it was linked to a concussion.
“In athletes we studied, about three out of every four SHAAKEs happened because of a concussion,” said Dr Dan Daneshvar from Harvard Medical School.
After establishing this, the team explored why SHAAKEs happen in the first place. Of the surveyed athletes, 25 per cent said it was because they felt disorientated or confused post-impact and 23 per cent said they felt they needed to “jumpstart” their brain.
SHAAKEs are initiated within seconds or minutes of impact and involve rotating your head side-to-side two to eight times a second. They were first recognised as a potential concussion sign in September 2022 after Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa gained an undiagnosed concussion mid-game and shook his head.
This lack of diagnosis resulted in Tua losing consciousness in the following Thursday’s game after experiencing a second concussion. Had SHAAKE been a known sign, the doctors could have diagnosed Tua’s concussion earlier and stopped him playing the next game.
“An unacceptably high number of concussions are not voluntarily reported by athletes, either because they don’t realise they have a concussion or because, in the heat of the moment, they don’t want to be removed from a game,” said co-author Dr Robert Cantu.
So, next time you experience a big impact – though hopefully you won’t – remember that shaking your head might signal a concussion.
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