Neural Health in Sports: FFR Research, Guardian Caps, and Athlete Honesty

After sustaining his fourth concussion, my brother Owen finally made the decision to quit the University of Pittsburgh rugby team. So when Dr. Jennifer Krizman later presented her research, “Neural processing of sound in healthy and concussed Division I athletes,” in my Neuroscience Seminar class, I felt reassured he had made the right choice.

“I lied to an extent with the fourth concussion,” he admitted. “I knew I was concussed, and I knew what to say.” 

As Dr. Krizman’s research article, “Auditory biological marker of concussion in children,” notes, “no single test has been validated to reliably diagnose a concussion” (Kraus et al., 2016). In her research, she emphasizes the need for an objective and scientifically reliable tool to assess concussions—especially given the current measures. Today, many existing concussion assessments are either too invasive (such as cerebrospinal fluid or blood-based biomarker tests) or too expensive (like DTI or MRI scans).

Dr. Krizman highlights a potential alternative: using frequency-following response (FFR) to assess concussions. Specifically, she finds key differences in neural responses to fundamental frequency (F0) between concussed children and children with normal hearing. She found that F0 acts as a fast, inexpensive, mobile, and clinically adoptable biomarker of concussions.

However, she acknowledged a major barrier to her research at the end of her presentation: it could threaten playing time for key athletes. Implementing such a convenient and objective measure is challenging when athletes, and even entire programs, feel pressure being tied to scholarships or winning games.

This tension between safety and performance is also reflected in preventative products like the Guardian Cap in football. In The New York Times article, “The questionable science behind the odd-looking football helmets,” journalist Ken Belson details the appeal of the product and the uncertainty surrounding it. 

Following the N.F.L’s HeadHealthTECH Challenge initiative, the Guardian Cap has exploded in popularity and has gained endorsement by the N.F.L., claiming the product has reduced concussions by over 50 percent in their players. Researcher groups have found similar patterns. For instance, researchers at Virginia Tech found that “players who wore the NXT version of the Guardian Cap experienced a 14 percent decline in rotational accelerations—basically, the turning of the head” (Belson, 2026), and that their concussion rates were reduced by about 34 percent compared to athletes wearing regular helmets.

Despite this support, Belson points out much of the support for Guardian Caps comes from affiliated sources. Many independent neurologists are skeptical due to limited testing of the product. Even studies published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine were skeptical: “While the rate declined between 54 and 62 percent, the authors said there was no way to conclude the reduction was solely attributed to the Guardian Caps” (Belson, 2026). 

Furthermore, on the Guardian website, I read a warning at the bottom of the page stating, “No helmet, headgear, or chinstrap can prevent or eliminate the risk of concussions or other serious head injuries…No conclusions about a reduction of risk or severity of concussive injury or other injury risk should be drawn from impact attenuation tests.” (Guardian Sports, n.d.). 

Sports aren’t just simple competitions—they’re intertwined with culture, politics, and economics. In my opinion, though, I don’t believe that justifies coaches, schools, or entire leagues compromising the health of their athletes for the sake of winning a game. There are far more important things at stake than the outcome of a game.

The research Dr. Krizman is conducting with FFR is critical because competition sports aren’t going away. Not only is F0 a scientifically reliable, objective, and quick biomarker of concussions, but it can indicate when it is safe for a player to return to activity. 

Tools like this have the potential to change sports for the better, shifting the culture of sports toward safety without compromising the spirit of competition. Concussions are serious, and it’s time the people responsible for athletes’ health take them just as seriously. 

APA Citations 

Belson, K. (2026, February 3). The questionable science behind the odd-looking football helmets. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/business/super-bowl-guardian-cap-helmet. html

Guardian Sports. (n.d.). Guardian Sports – Shop. https://shop.guardiansports.com

Kraus, N., Thompson, E. C., Krizman, J., Cook, K., White-Schwoch, T., & LaBella, C. R. (2016). Auditory biological marker of concussion in children. Scientific Reports, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1 038/srep3900

Gestures Bring Attention to Learning

Communication is more than words; a message is not delivered solely based on what is said, but also on how it is said. Non-verbal behaviors and cues, such as facial expressions, posture, gestures, and eye contact, make up a large part of communication. These behaviors serve as visual cues that enhance a listener’s understanding of a verbal message. Nonverbal behaviors promote communication and comprehension, implying a significant role in learning and memory.

The research article “Language Proficiency Impacts the Benefits of Co-Speech Gesture for Narrative Understanding Through a Visual Attention Mechanism” by Elizabeth M. Wakefield and Natalia Zielinski examined how visual attention and language proficiency affect children’s ability to understand a spoken message. By tracking the eye fixation of a sample of Polish-American children, Wakefield and Zielinski found that children paid greater visual attention to gestures when a speaker told a story in Polish, their weaker language, than when the story was in English. Additionally, the heightened attention to gesture that matched the speaker’s words boosted the children’s ability to recall that point of the story. Overall, Wakefield and Zielinski’s findings revealed that gesture aids learning and memory when used appropriately and attended to.

While Wakefield and Zielinski’s findings attribute the children’s visual attention to gesture to their weaker language proficiency, arousal may also play a role. The research article “Stimulant medications affect arousal and reward, not attention networks” by Benjamin P. Kay et al. reports that medications used to treat ADHD impact the brain’s arousal and reward regions and fixed changes due to sleep deficits, implying that selective attention is influenced by physiological arousal or alertness. Daniel Greeve’s article “A systematic review of the behavioral and physiological markers of arousal, cognitive load and emotional processing in nonverbal behavior” analyzed the relationship between nonverbal behavior and arousal. His review of 69 research articles revealed that observing certain facial expressions, posture, gestures, and eye movements increased the observer’s arousal and vigilance, especially when the behaviors communicated anger or dominance. 

Together, these studies reveal how nonverbal behaviors impact learning and memory through arousal and attention mechanisms. Growing awareness of how these nonverbal communication skills are perceived can significantly impact teaching and academia in positive ways. Not only can the appropriate use of these behaviors enhance comprehension of new information, but they can also help elevate the audience’s attention to the speaker. Further insight into this topic could be especially beneficial to children struggling with attention deficits in academic settings.

References

Zielinski, N., & Wakefield, E. M. (2021). Language Proficiency Impacts the Benefits of Co-Speech Gesture for Narrative Understanding Through a Visual Attention Mechanism. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 43. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/63r5d3qq.

Kay, B. P., et al. (2025). Stimulant medications affect arousal and reward, not attention networks. Cell, Volume 188, Issue 26, 7529-7546.e20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.11.039. 

Greeves, D. (2025). A systematic review of the behavioral and physiological markers of arousal, Cognitive load and emotional processing in nonverbal behavior. Behavior &. Law Journal, 11(2), 71-84. https://doi.org/10.47442/blj.2025.120.