Watch a UC Berkeley Neurologist Explain How Concussions Really Work
'Your brain is not designed to be hit. It's as simple as that.'
Robert Knight knows about concussions. A neurologist, the UC Berkeley professor of psychology and neuroscience has seen what repeated head impacts can do to the brain, in particular the damage caused by blows, like a round house punch, that rotate the head.
“If you took a brain fresh out of the skull, you’d be a little bit shocked. It almost feels like you’re holding a Jell-O mold,” Knight says in this University of California video about what causes the symptoms of a concussion. “Your brain is not designed to be hit. It is as simple as that.”
While awareness of the danger of concussion is on the rise thanks to new research on traumatic brain injury in athletes, many remain unaware of the basic facts about how susceptible the brain is to impacts. Surprisingly, the fluid surrounding the brain is not sufficient to prevent the brain from hitting the skull after a strong blow.
In the video, Knight explains what happens to our three-pound brain when a sudden impact makes it bounce around inside the skull, and relates the strange tale of Phineas Gage and the iron rod that pierced his skull and revealed the critical role of the brain’s frontal cortex.