Analysis of brain responses to football related impacts using finite element modelling and electroencephalography

Soto Rosales, Heber 2025. Analysis of brain responses to football related impacts using finite element modelling and electroencephalography. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Football heading is a repetitive subconcussive activity, yet the short-term mechanical and physiological brain responses to realistic game-velocity impacts remain incompletely understood. This thesis develops and applies an integrated biomechanical–electrophysiological framework to investigate how controlled football headers influence intracranial loading and neural activity. Finite-element (FE) modelling was used to simulate head–ball under varying impact configurations. The simulations characterised intracranial pressure, von Mises stress and axonal shear distributions, revealing clear direction dependent loading response patterns. Frontal impacts generated concentrated loading within deep midline structures, consistent with “coup like” responses, while oblique impacts produced a more distributed cortical stress response. These findings indicate that football-related head impacts cannot be fully described using classical front-to-back coup–contrecoup models alone and instead, reflect multidirectional loading mechanisms influenced by impact orientation, velocity and ball stiffness. Complementary electroencephalography (EEG) experiments were conducted in a cohort of healthy participants exposed to controlled heading conditions. EEG analyses identified subtle but consistent, direction-specific changes in spectral power and functional connectivity following heading. Oblique impacts were associated with increases in alpha-band activity and more localised network reorganisation, whereas frontal impacts were linked to reductions in beta-band power and more diffuse connectivity changes. Importantly, these EEG patterns were consistent with observations from a longitudinal ‘concussion case’ study conducted within this thesis, which demonstrated sustained post-incident differences in spectral power and functional connectivity relative to baseline. Together, these findings demonstrate that moderate-speed football headers can enhance measurable, short-term mechanical and electrophysiological responses. By linking FE-predicted loading patterns with EEG-derived neural metrics, this work highlights the value of an integrated FE–EEG approach for improving mechanistic understanding of subconcussive head impacts in football.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Schools > Engineering
Uncontrolled Keywords:	1. Football heading 2. Finite element modelling 3. Brain biomechanics 4. Electroencephalography (EEG) 5. Head impact biomechanics 6. Functional connectivity
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	3 June 2026
Last Modified:	19 Jun 2026 10:10
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/187383

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