Bouldering & chronic traumatic encephalopathy – That is repeated mild traumatic brain injury from climbing

Abstract

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is one of the most common neurological conditions resulting from linear accelerations in the range of 60 gravity. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive neurodegenerative syndrome. Its etiopathology is attributed to repeated blows to the head and the transmission of acceleration and deceleration forces to the brain. There are several types of climbing, the most popular are lead climbing, speed climbing and bouldering. Athletes involved in the latter sub-discipline (bouldering) appear to be most at risk of mTBI. Bouldering takes place on artificial walls or natural rock and involves climbing without a rope on routes up to several metres in height. We hypothesised that climbers in the bouldering sub-discipline are at risk of frequent mTBI and, as a consequence, may suffer from chronic traumatic encephalopathy. In the paper we presented physical formula to support our thesis, a verification of this formula and a survey of boulder climbers. The physical model was verified in a practical test. Differences in the range of ≈ 2g were demonstrated (MAE = 1.86, RMSE = 2.51). There is evidence in the form of a physiological model that boulderers are able to achieve accelerations that cause mTBI. The study population had a 12 % incidence of repeated falls and reported symptoms associated with mTBI during bouldering training sessions. Given the diagnosis of CTE, which can only be made after death, future research should focus on diagnosing and treating symptoms of mTBI and CTE (including depression, progressive memory loss, suicidal behaviour, cognitive impairment) in boulder climbers.