History of biological, mechanistic, and clinical understanding of concussion
This review traces the evolution of concussion knowledge from the 10th century to modern times, highlighting Harrison Martland's 1928 postmortem studies of boxers that first documented structural brain changes underlying 'punch drunk' syndrome. The article examines how understanding of concussion's long-term consequences has progressed to include recognition of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in athletes and military personnel, and discusses current preventative and therapeutic research directions.