Tagged with “CTE”
On January 16, 2016 the University of Pennsylvania announced the findings of a unique team studying concussion science, consisting of a professor of materials science and engineering and a professor of neurosurgery (also director of Penn Center for Brain Injury and Repair.) Read More
Our May 28, 2015 blog post discussed the evidence offered by McMasters University researchers in support of their conclusion that the body’s immune response following injury can lead to unchecked, ultimately destructive neuroinflammation and that this likely underlies persistent symptoms following TBI as well as increased risk of neurodegenerative conditions such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and Alzheimers. The authors observed similar neuroinflammatory processes in patients without a history of head injury, such as patients with serious infections, PTSD and Depression. They also noted that subtle genetic differences may explain differences in inflammatory responses between patients, leading to different long term outcomes. The October 2015 issue of Trends in Neuroscience includes a review by Ohio State neuroscientists with further support for this new paradigm for understanding the brain’s response to injury. See “Priming the Inflammatory Pump of the CNS after Traumatic Brain Injury.” Read More
Sony Pictures has made a movie about the devastating long term effects of concussion in professional football players, and the NFL’s efforts to cover this up. Will Smith stars as Nigerian doctor Bennet Omalu, the pathologist who first discovered the prevalence in players of a degenerative disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). A trailer for the movie has just been released and can be seen here.
This movie promises to bring even greater public attention to the growing body of evidence, discussed in many past posts in this blog, demonstrating that concussion can in some cases trigger a chronic degenerative process with permanent consequences. Read More