2025 Review: The Top 5 Concussion Research Topics
By Associate Professor James McLoughlin
Chief Academic Officer, Your Brain Health
At Your Brain Health, staying ahead of the evidence is core to our mission. It is essential that we incorporate this knowledge into our educational courses and resources, and use it to evolve and improve ScreenIT.
There was a plethora of concussion research in 2025. Here are our nominations for the five biggest themes in concussion research in 2025 based on our own biases and interests!
1. Mental Health & Fear Avoidance
Mental health is finally (and rightly) recognised as a central component of concussion recovery and persisting symptoms. Two major studies this year emphasise that catastrophising thoughts, fear-avoidance behaviours, and perceptions about symptoms strongly influence long-term outcomes—sometimes more than the injury itself.
Key insights:
- Mental health concerns are common but often overlooked in concussion care.
- People may avoid seeking help due to fear or misunderstanding of their symptoms.
- Education and early support remain essential.
- Including mental health in routine brain health surveillance helps normalise monitoring and encourages early intervention.
Key papers:
2. Functional Neurological Disorder & Functional Overlay After Concussion
FND has historically fallen between neurology and psychiatry, but 2025 marks a shift. There is a stronger recognition of functional overlay following concussion: best-practice now promotes positive “rule-in” diagnostics and targeted rehabilitation, providing new clarity for clinicians.
Key insights:
- Functional overlay after concussion is common, including functional cognitive symptoms.
- FND and Persisting Symptoms Post Concussion share both risk factors and clinical presentations, which clinicians should be aware of. I recently met Dr Ioannis Mavroudis in Leeds UK, who has a wealth of knowledge and experience in both concussions, TBI and FND. Ioannis was lead author in an excellent discussion that I recommend everyone read!
- Understanding these mechanisms can prevent misdiagnosis and ineffective management.
- Oculomotor data—such as saccades, anti-saccades and smooth pursuit—already collected across the YBH network may prove particularly informative.
- Longitudinal brain-health surveillance can help distinguish functional recovery patterns.
Key insights:
3. Football Headers: Technique, Demands & The Future of Prevention
One of the defining questions in sport science today is: How can we reduce head-impact exposure in football without changing the game itself?
In 2025, several landmark papers have begun to answer this
Key insights:
- Townsend et al. produced the first high-resolution dataset of heading demands for elite men and women, establishing an important foundation for accurate load monitoring. Impressive work!
- Peek and colleagues at FIFA argue that prevention will be most effective when focused not only on neck strength, but also whole-body technique and tactical decision-making. This is a shift that places coaches at the centre of injury-prevention strategy. A smart approach, so keep coaches involved as we progress this knowledge together!
- Multimodal cervical training in women shows promising early results. A you may have already gathered, we (at YBH) think the neck is a crucial part of concussion rehabilitation in many cases!
- At YBH, these findings reinforce our view that performance data, biomechanics, and applied coaching must sit alongside medical care in concussion-prevention frameworks.
Key papers:
4. Sport-Specific Considerations: From Circus to Cricket
Best-practice guidelines are essential—but athletes rarely fit into one generic model. This year, we’ve seen excellent work applying concussion evidence to very specific performance environments.
Highlights:
- Circus artists face complex inverted positions, spinning, aerial rotations and extreme physical demands. I had the pleasure of meeting David Munro this year, an experienced concussion physiotherapist from Melbourne. David and colleagues have produced a much-needed extension of the CISG guidelines tailored to circus performance—something I deeply appreciate after meeting with the Cirque du Soleil medical team ealier this year.
- Cricket, currently in the spotlight with the Ashes, requires nuanced return-to-play (RTP) considerations: batting reaction timing, fast-bowling workloads, fielding exposure, travel fatigue, and more. Golding et al. provide an excellent framework for cricket-specific concussion care.
Key papers:
5. Concussion in Older Adults: A Critical Knowledge Gap
While most assume concussion is primarily a youth-sport issue, the truth is stark: most concussions occur due to falls in older adults. Yet research in this population is decades behind.
Key insights:
- Concussion symptoms in older adults often overlap with dementia, depression, delirium or medication effects.
- Little is known about their recovery trajectories.
- Falls risk itself is rising with ageing populations.
- Without structured monitoring, concussion may remain undetected—or misattributed—for months.
- Many of our cognitive, balance and vestibular outcome measures used in concussion care, overlap with measures that relate to falls risk. ScreenIT will hold some valuable data soon that will give interesting insights!
Key papers:
We think these research papers in 2025 were worth sharing. But plenty of great research was not included. We are happy for anyone in our growing Your Brain Health community to share other research in 2025 that we missed.
Also, keep an eye out for our Top 5 Topics Brain Health Research next!