How does being knocked out work

There was once the assumption that a concussion was always accompanied with a loss of consciousness, but according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons , in most cases, this is not true, and there's actually no loss of consciousness.

Many of the neurological effects of a concussion occur along with the event of being knocked out, but being knocked out necessitates a loss of consciousness, whereas a concussion reflects on brain activity in general.

And even without losing consciousness, depending on the level of injury sustained by the brain, recovery from a concussion can range from a few days to several weeks.

According to the Washington Examiner , bare-knuckle boxing is actually safer than boxing with gloves. Boxing gloves were introduced into the sport in order to protect boxers' hands , but as a result, boxers were able to hit even harder without feeling the impact on their own hands.

With bare-knuckle boxing, boxers wouldn't throw the hardest punch possible because of the risk of injury to their hands. Since boxers especially wouldn't risk a headshot for fear of a broken hand, matches could last up to 30 rounds. Once boxers started fighting with boxing gloves, they could hit harder without risk of injury, and they wouldn't feel the impact of their own blows as much, which allowed them to deliver repeated strikes. This led to an increase of injuries in the ring, especially head injuries, despite the fact that the boxing gloves were introduced with the intention of decreasing injuries.

With gloves, boxers were more willing to strike blows to the head, leading to an increase in the number of knockouts, as well as the number of concussions among boxers. Since a blow to the head can result in a great deal of damage, one would think that helmets should work to prevent that sort of thing.

But, in fact, helmets are actually only useful for preventing skull fractures rather than internal injuries from a blow to the head. According to Scientific American , this is why American football players continue to suffer from trauma and recurrent concussions. American football helmets have evolved as concussion concerns persisted, but the helmets continue to protect more against skull fractures than concussions.

While a helmet protects a head from rough surfaces and distributes the force of blows, it doesn't provide support to the brain itself to keep it from rocking back and forth in the skull.

So while a helmet can prevent a skull from cracking, the brain itself is still vulnerable to concussions, despite the appearance of safety that a helmet may provide.

According to Science Daily , if a helmet is fitted properly to a player, it may decrease the severity of a concussion, but there's still no technology to completely prevent them. However, since helmets often prevent the head from twisting too much, there's somewhat of a decreased chance of loss of consciousness as a result of torque on the brain stem.

The length of time that a person is knocked out for typically depends on the severity of the traumatic brain injury. According to Headway , if someone is unconscious for less than 15 minutes, their traumatic brain injury is considered to be mild.

A loss of consciousness between 15 minutes and six hours is considered a moderate traumatic brain injury, and between six hours and 48 hours is severe traumatic brain injury. And the longer that a person is unconscious, the longer their post-traumatic amnesia will last, as well. Post-traumatic amnesia can occur without a person having been unconscious, but it commonly happens when consciousness is lost due to brain injury.

As a result, after regaining consciousness, people suffer from a state of confusion and disorientation that can last upwards of seven days in the case of severe traumatic brain injuries. In general, most knockouts should last between 30 and seconds. The longer that someone is knocked out, the higher the risk of internal bleeding, cell death, and brain damage, with those risks rising exponentially as time goes on. If someone is unconscious for several hours, surgery may end up being required to relieve pressure on the brain.

Brain activity can be affected by a number of things — oxygen can be cut off to certain parts, or a blood vessel might burst. But a blow to the head can also cause a disruption that could lead to a loss of consciousness. Think about the brain as firm jello. The two hemispheres are heavy, and the brainstem connecting the two hemispheres to the rest of the nervous system is narrow, like the stem of a flower. When the head is moved violently, the brain moves around in the skull.

The heaviest part of the brain puts a lot of pressure on the brainstem, which can be twisted and pulled during the blow as the rest of the brain moves out of place. That twisting and pulling can cause brain circuits to break, or lose their insulation, or get kinked up, and that shuts off parts of the brain. If the part of the brainstem responsible for consciousness is affected, then you would be knocked out.

Thanks to further research into concussions, we now know that, in about 90 percent of diagnosed concussions, there is no loss of consciousness. During any severe blow to the head, the same thing is happening. The brain twists, the circuits can break, and the damage sends the brain into crisis. But different parts of the brain can be affected. Concussions typically cause vision problems, disorientation, memory loss, headaches, balance issues, and a host of other ailments as the circuits that undergird these functions go down.

It depends on the severity of the injury. In alone, three professional boxers were killed by knockout punches they received during scheduled fights. Phindile Mwelase of South Africa, Oscar Gonzalez of Mexico and Japanese fighter Tesshin Okada all passed away having never regained consciousness after being knocked out. Earlier this year, Australian professional boxer Braydon Smith died after collapsing following a welterweight bout in Toowoomba, Queensland. The year-old suffered severe swelling on the brain as a result of injuries suffered during the bout.

Tim Tszyu will face the toughest test of his boxing career next week but the Aussie has brushed off any talk of an upset with an epic burn. Takeshi Inoue taunted Tim Tszyu after they met for the first time with a gibe about his head size before the Australian phenom fired back a brutal response. Best of shopping Premium Membership.

In the know quiz. In the blink of an eye, a well-landed punch can send you flying out cold before if you even hit the floor. But what happens within the brain when it suffers such trauma? The brain is very fragile. All this mushy mass is floating in a clear, colorless liquid called the cerebrospinal fluid which protects the brain from coming into contact with the skull.

If the punch is good enough, it could cause the brain to slam into the skull from the acceleration caused by the blow and the deceleration caused by the muscles and tendons trying to prevent the head from spinning further. When the brain slams into the skull, you get trauma — brain cells literally start dying from the physical impact. This happens multiple times as the brain bounces off the walls of the skull on and off until the energy from the blow is dissipated. The trauma causes an overwhelming number of neurotransmitters to fire simultaneously.