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AbstractBlink reflex assessment has been suggested as a potential marker for sport-related concussions (SRCs) screening. However, exertion level is known to affect the blink reflex, which may affect the clinical utility of sideline screening and post-concussion monitoring. This validation study of 44 male college-aged athletes found significant differences in several blink reflex parameters between baseline and active play. In assessing the differences between mild and moderate/higher intensity, as a function of heart rate, the number of oscillations was the only significantly different parameter between the two groups. When combining the two groups (mild and moderate/higher intensity) and comparing to baseline values of the blink reflex, there were significant differences in latency, initial velocity, time to open, and lid excursions. Using baseline data, the EyeStat provides a greater understanding of its application during baseline, and exercise monitoring.

The blink reflex presents a promising, objective, neurophysiologic measure for use in sports-related concussion diagnosis and monitoring. The purpose of this study was to describe blink reflex metrics obtained using the EyeStat across various demographic factors in a group of healthy high school and collegiate athletes. Participants were 975 healthy high school and collegiate athletes ages 13–23 who underwent pre-season baseline blink reflex testing with EyeStat from 2018 to 2020. Separate two- and three-way analyses of variance tested the effects of age, sex and race on each blink reflex parameter including latency (ms), differential latency (ms), time under threshold (ln(ms)), oscillations (qty), and excursions (px). Bivariate correlations demonstrated uniformly negligible (|r|