According to Lipton, even two people who have been hit in the same place on the head and suffer a concussion may have completely different symptoms.

"Right now if you look at a group of people with traumatic brain injuries, there's a whole host of symptoms," Lipton explained.  "...There's no way to understand what it is about the brain that may underpin those different outcomes."

Lipton and his colleagues hope some of the mystery behind concussions may be solved by DTI, which can detect subtle damage by measuring diffusion of water in the brain's white matter - giving an indication as to whether or not the tissue's structural integrity has been affected.  

For the study, the researchers used DTI on 34 patients diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury and on 30 people with no injury.  The patients were imaged within two weeks of the injury, then again at three and six months afterward.