Disclaimer: No human brains got scrambled in the making of this study.

Instead, the researchers used egg yolks as a model for the human brain.

Related: From dino brains to thought control — 10 fascinating brain findings .

"They're completely different systems, in terms of the material properties." For one, egg yolks contain just one substance — yolk — while brains contain a variety of cell types arranged in complex structures, he said.

That said, eggs and human brains have a handful of key similarities, which can give some insights into the fundamental physics of concussions, he said.

They tested two kinds of impacts seen in concussions, including rotational impact, which causes the skull to rotate, and translational impact, which only shifts the skull in space, without rotating it.

To test translational impact, the team dropped a 4pound (1.7 kilograms) hammer onto the container from 3.2 feet (1 meter) above it; for their rotational impact experiments, they spun the container with an electric motor, up to 64 revolutions per second.

The team recorded these tests using a high-speed camera and found that rotational impact caused the yolk to morph dramatically, while in comparison, the translational impact caused no visible change?

While the rotational impact wreaked havoc on the yolk, the hammer-drop experiment caused no change at all.

"It is very surprising, it's counterintuitive," because you'd expect the force to be transmitted through the hard container and egg whites and into the yolk, Wu said.

But based on their experiments, the brain may be more sensitive to rotational impacts, Wu said.

The lab recently developed an artificial brain, modeled from scans of human brains and surrounded by a transparent skull, which they put through impact experiments.