Report: Headbanging Could Cause Brain Injury
December 18, 2008According to Australia's ABC News, two University of New South Wales (UNSW) researchers concluded in a study published in the British Medical Journal this week that headbanging to a typical heavy metal tempo could cause mild traumatic brain injury or concussion, and neck injury, particularly as the tempo of the music and angle of movement increased.
"Clearly it's a serious issue," says Associate Professor Andrew McIntosh, co-author and professor of biomechanics at UNSW.
"If you observe people after concerts they clearly look dazed, confused and incoherent, so something must be going on and we wanted to look into it."
After careful observation of the behaviour of heavy metal concert-goers, McIntosh and honours student Declan Patton constructed a theoretical headbanging model to better understand the mechanics of the practice.
They also spoke to a focus group of local musicians to identify ten popular songs to headbang to.
"These songs had an average tempo of 146 beats per minute, and at this tempo we predict that head banging can cause headaches and dizziness if the range of movement of the head and neck is greater than 75°," the researchers wrote.
Read the entire article from ABC News.
(Thanks: P.C. Greenwood / TwentyFourBit.com)
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