brain-injuries

Public Brain Health vs. Private Brain Research Funds: How the NFL tried to influence NIH studies

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football_concussions——-

How the NFL tried to manip­u­late a gov­ern­ment study on foot­ball and brain injuries (Los Ange­les Times):

“The Nation­al Insti­tutes of Health seems to have dis­cov­ered what com­mu­ni­ties across the land already know: The Nation­al Foot­ball League is an untrust­wor­thy partner.

Accord­ing to a report [Read more…] about Pub­lic Brain Health vs. Pri­vate Brain Research Funds: How the NFL tried to influ­ence NIH studies

Scientists issue a call to action for TBI patients to benefit from latest neuroscience findings

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Brain Trauma
Cred­it: Julie McMahon

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Brain-injured patients need ther­a­pies based on cog­ni­tive neu­ro­science (U. Illi­nois press release):

“Patients with trau­mat­ic brain injuries are not ben­e­fit­ing from recent advances in cog­ni­tive neu­ro­science research — and they should be, sci­en­tists report in a spe­cial issue of Cur­rent Opin­ion in Behav­ioral Sci­ences. [Read more…] about Sci­en­tists issue a call to action for TBI patients to ben­e­fit from lat­est neu­ro­science findings

Why addressing brain health priorities requires open science (8‑minute video)

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https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xz4xa0m1u5o%26w%3D430

Descrip­tion of talk (8 min­utes): Why open sci­ence? The rea­sons are many, but here are a few: our ser­vice mem­bers return­ing from 14 years of war, the rise in aware­ness of sports relat­ed brain injuries and [Read more…] about Why address­ing brain health pri­or­i­ties requires open sci­ence (8‑minute video)

Study: Traumatic Brain Injury patients with high cognitive reserve recover 7 times better

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Car_AccidentPeo­ple with More Edu­ca­tion May Recov­er Bet­ter from Trau­mat­ic Brain Injury (Neu­rol­o­gy):

“The study exam­ined peo­ple with mod­er­ate to severe trau­mat­ic brain injuries, most of which were from motor vehi­cle acci­dents or falls. All were tak­en to [Read more…] about Study: Trau­mat­ic Brain Injury patients with high cog­ni­tive reserve recov­er 7 times better

Neuroscience, brain development and cognitive health

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Round-up of recent arti­cles on neu­ro­science, brain devel­op­ment and cog­ni­tive health:

Encephalon 68: A car­ni­val of neu­ro­science:

Chris hosts a great col­lec­tion of neu­ro­science and psy­chol­o­gy posts in his sig­na­ture Q&A style.

Bilin­gual Babies Get Head Start — Before They Can Talk:

- Unlike the mono­lin­gual group, the bilin­gual group was able to suc­cess­ful­ly learn a new sound type and use it to pre­dict where each char­ac­ter would pop up.

- The bilin­gual babies’ skill applies to more than just switch­ing between lan­guages. Mehler likened this appar­ent­ly enhanced cog­ni­tive abil­i­ty to a brain select­ing “the right tool for the right oper­a­tion” also called exec­u­tive function.

- In this basic process, the brain, ever flex­i­ble, nim­bly switch­es from one learned response to anoth­er as sit­u­a­tions change.

- Mono­lin­gual babies hone this abil­i­ty lat­er in their young lives, Mehler suggests.”

Study shows how kids’ stress hurts mem­o­ry:

“Now, research is pro­vid­ing what could be cru­cial clues to explain how child­hood pover­ty trans­lates into dim­mer chances of suc­cess: Chron­ic stress from grow­ing up poor appears to have a direct impact on the brain, leav­ing chil­dren with impair­ment in at least one key area — work­ing memory.”

Return­ing troops get­ting test­ed for brain injuries:

- “More than 150,000 ser­vice mem­bers from the Marines, Air Force, Army and Navy have under­gone the test­ing that became manda­to­ry last year. Those who suf­fer a con­cus­sion or sim­i­lar head injury will get a fol­low-up test.”

Dia­betes ‘impact on brain pow­er’:

- “Fail­ure to con­trol type 2 dia­betes may have a long-term impact on the brain, research has suggested.

- Lead researcher Dr Jack­ie Price said: “Either hypos lead to cog­ni­tive decline, or cog­ni­tive decline makes it more dif­fi­cult for peo­ple to man­age their dia­betes, which in turn caus­es more hypos.

- “A third expla­na­tion could be that a third uniden­ti­fied fac­tor is caus­ing both the hypos and the cog­ni­tive decline.”