Q 01/05

Which part of the woodpecker skeleton, studied in concussion research, winds around the outside of the skull?

A) Jawbone

B) Tongue bone

C) Cheekbone

D) Wishbone

Answer · why

B) Tongue bone

The tongue bone, or hyoid, is enormously long in woodpeckers. It splits in two around the spine and curls over the braincase before ending in the righ...

Q 02/05

The word concussion comes from the Latin verb concutere, which carries what meaning?

A) To lapse into silence

B) To darken suddenly

C) To tumble headlong

D) To shake violently

Answer · why

D) To shake violently

To shake violently is the sense of concutere, built from com, together, and quatere. English took up the word around 1400 for a bruising injury to the...

Q 03/05

Which sign, often assumed to mark every concussion, occurs in fewer than one in ten child sports cases?

A) Feeling dizzy

B) A headache

C) Passing out

D) Confusion

Answer · why

C) Passing out

Passing out happens in under 10% of sports concussions among children, so staying conscious is no all-clear. Headache is the symptom reported most oft...

Q 04/05

Which activity, long rumoured to be dangerous after a concussion, does NHS head-injury advice allow?

A) Going to sleep

B) Drinking alcohol

C) Driving a car

D) Contact sport

Answer · why

A) Going to sleep

Going to sleep is fine: the NHS says you or your child do not need to stay awake if tired. It does ask that an adult stays with the injured person for...

Q 05/05

Which actor played pathologist Bennet Omalu in the 2015 film Concussion, earning a Golden Globe nomination?

A) Idris Elba

B) Don Cheadle

C) Will Smith

D) Jamie Foxx

Answer · why

C) Will Smith

Will Smith played the doctor who took on the NFL in a film drawn from Game Brain, a 2009 magazine exposé by Jeanne Marie Laskas. It took $48 million w...