head injury

This is a preliminary study but we want to go into more of the details about why working memory and processing speed are associated with social functioning and how specific brain structures might be related to improve outcome.

The current study shows that the most vulnerable white matter pathways — the core “scaffolding” — are not necessarily just the connections among the most vulnerable areas of gray matter, helping explain why seemingly small brain injuries may have such devastating effects.

A brain protein, S100B, which may soon be detected by a simple finger-stick blood test, accurately distinguishes a sports-related concussion from sports exertion, according to a study of college athletes in Rochester, N.Y., and Munich, Germany.

BI was the strongest predictor of PTSD, even when controlling for pre-existing symptoms and combat intensity. These findings may be used to identify individuals who may be at risk for developing PTSD and provide them with more immediate health care.

The findings could help explain some of the midlife mental-health issues suffered by individuals who experience multiple concussions as young adults, researchers say. And these depressive symptoms are likely inflammation-related, which means they may not respond to common antidepressants.

“These exciting findings that we can study traumatic brain injury — a disorder of growing concern for athletes, the military, and parents — in the elegantly simple model of fruit flies is sure to interest those researchers and companies looking to address this concern,” says Jennifer Gottwald, WARF licensing manager. “The use of this model can accelerate the work of the medical research community in finding treatments and therapies to help patients.”

The largest study of computed tomographic (CT) scans taken in emergency departments across the country for children with head injuries describes the prevalence of “incidental findings” — results that were not expected from the injury — and categorizes them by urgency.

“Traumatic head injury is the leading cause of acquired epilepsy in young adults, and in many cases the seizures cant be controlled with medication,” says senior author Matthew Smyth, MD, associate professor of neurological surgery and of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “If we can confirm coolings effectiveness in human trials, this approach may give us a safe and relatively simple way to prevent epilepsy in these patients.”