Concussions can result from direct axonal injury or disturbances in neuronal firing patterns, leading to downstream cellular processes like mitochondrial damage and swelling.

“there are some you know significant head impacts in particular where you can get shearing of axons um you know direct axonal injury of the neurons and then you that you know that cell is essentially is essentially lost as you've sort of ripped it apart but even more um you know milder impacts may cause uh disturbances that include like the the neuron firing when it shouldn't this can then sort of create this pattern of activation again that's not expected or in an area of the brain where it's you know it wouldn't normally occur in a way that it wouldn't normally occur and then this can then cause these down stream processes within cells that can cause mitochondrial damage swelling”