Subject-Specific Models of the Head and Neck for Reproducing Experimentally Obtained Head Impacts in OpenSim

Simulating impacts to the head that are likely to cause concussion contributes knowledge to inform efforts to reduce head injury risk in sports. Previous studies used generic models and potentially missed subject-specific factors, which when combined with experimental data may offer additional insights about an individual’s risk. This study details methods for creating more subject-specific OpenSim models of the head and neck, which can be used in future studies to evaluate head injury risk during impacts. A generic model was scaled to match subject height and weight using data available from the literature. Muscle strength and passive properties were also scaled in order to reproduce experimental data obtained during safe impacts to the head. The average error between experimental and simulation kinematic values was under 15% for all but one of the subject-models. By applying the methods presented in this study, future work could include using subject-specific models to assess individual athletes and generate personalized training protocols to help prevent injury. Future work could also include subject-specific models to investigate the effects of posture, startle response, and auditory warnings on head injury metrics.