After watching countless spy movies, westerns, and TV cop shows, I wonder: how easy is it to knock someone out by smacking them on the back of the head with a pistol, club, etc? Since I’m not willing to act as a test subject, although I’m pretty sure I’d have plenty of volunteers willing to do the smacking, I’m asking you as the next-best source. –Dave Arnold, Ashland, Kansas
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Could be. See what you make of this: “Immediately after biomechanical injury to the brain, abrupt, indiscriminant release of neurotransmitters and unchecked ionic fluxes occur. The binding of excitatory transmitters, such as glutamate, to the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor leads to further neuronal depolarization with efflux of potassium and influx of calcium. These ionic shifts lead to acute and subacute changes in cellular physiology.”
Is there a simpler explanation? Sorta, but be warned–nobody really understands what causes a concussion, as a knockout is more properly known. (Just so we’re clear, what sports types call a “ding,” in which you’re stunned but conscious, is a mild concussion.) A few basics: First, sudden acceleration or deceleration of the head seems to be essential. If somebody clouts you from above, so that your head remains stationary, you may suffer other injuries but probably no knockout. Second, strong evidence suggests that a KO requires twisting or rotational motion–one reason woodpeckers don’t beat themselves silly, it’s thought, is that their bills travel straight back and forth, like a jackhammer. In contrast, a boxer loses consciousness when a blow causes his brain to slosh and spin inside the skull.
So we’ve got an epilepsy connection, a Parkinson’s connection, and I didn’t even mention the Alzheimer’s connection. Not to give you the old rope-a-dope, but where the brain is concerned, what’s known is greatly exceeded by what’s not.
