Blog - Brainstreams

Is Malcolm Gladwell Right, Should College Football Be Banned To Save Brains?

Journalist and best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell is an outspoken advocate of banning college football on health grounds, and his appearance on CNN’s ‘GPS with Fareed Zakaria‘ has turned up the volume another notch. Zakaria asked Gladwell to defend hiscontroversial position, and nary a punch was pulled.

Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers, references a growing list of research studies suggesting a link between the head-impact injuries football players routinely endure during practice and games, and debilitating neurological disorders. The most troubling of these studies show evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the brains of former college and professional football players, a disease with similarities to Alzheimer’s. CTE is only diagnosable post-brain death during an autopsy and has also […]

Living in a world without smell

Anosmia or the loss of the ability to perceive smell can profoundly affect our eating and drinking behaviours, sometimes permanently, remembering that it’s pre and post nasal smell, along with taste that forms our appreciation of flavour.

So what causes anosmia, and how does it change the way you eat and drink?

How Handwriting Trains the Brain

Ask preschooler Zane Pike to write his name or the alphabet, then watch this 4-year-old’s stubborn side kick in. He spurns practice at school and tosses aside workbooks at home. But Angie Pike, Zane’s mom, persists, believing that handwriting is a building block to learning.

She’s right. Using advanced tools such as magnetic resonance imaging, researchers are finding that writing by hand is more than just a way to communicate. The practice helps with learning letters and shapes, can improve idea composition and expression, and may aid fine motor-skill development.

It’s not just children who benefit. Adults studying new symbols, such as Chinese characters, might enhance recognition by writing the characters by hand, researchers say. Some physicians say handwriting […]

How to prevent common sports injuries in children

Ally Carr was learning how to slide into home plate this spring when she tore the meniscus in her knee. She had to have surgery to repair the tear and missed much of the season.

The 16-year-old softball catcher at Maret School hopes to be fully recovered in time to play volleyball in the fall.

More than 38 million children and teens play sports in the United States each year, according to Safe Kids Worldwide, and it’s taking a toll. About one in three kids playing team sports is injured seriously enough to miss practice or a game. Those who, like Ally, play multiple sports that put pressure on the same body part are at an increased risk for injury.

Ally’s […]

Bike helmets should address concussion risk, scientists say

While sports medicine has gained a deeper understanding of head injuries in recent years, protective headgear hasn’t kept pace, and that is particularly true when it comes to bicycle helmets, experts in the field tell CBC News.

Bike helmets were designed to protect against catastrophic head injuries like skull fractures, lacerations or contusions on the brain, which they do.

However, as the understanding of concussions has advanced significantly in recent years, basic helmet design has not, and the standard that North American helmet manufacturers follow has not changed since 1999.

If a cyclist falls and his head hits the pavement or an automobile, the brain could undergo what scientists call linear acceleration – moving in the direction of the impact. […]

Football powerhouse Nebraska tackles concussions with new technology

LINCOLN, Neb. — If all goes according to Dennis Molfese’s plan, the day is coming when a football player who takes a hit to the head will come to the sideline, take off his helmet and slip on an electrode-covered mesh cap.

The team’s medical staff will analyze the player’s brain waves on the spot and determine within minutes whether he can safely return to the game or whether he has a concussion and, if so, how severe it is.

Putting the finishing touches on that device is among the projects planned in the University of Nebraska’s Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior, which opens this month in Memorial Stadium’s newly expanded east side.

CB3, as it’s called, is housed in […]

Teens And Traumatic Brain Injury: One In Five Canadian Teens Reports Experiencing One

If one survey of teens in Ontario, Canada, is any indication, as many as one in five seventh-through-twelfth graders has experienced some kind of traumatic brain injuryin his or her life.

Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers from St. Michael’s Hospital found that one in five teens reported ever experiencing a traumatic brain injury (including concussion) that required overnight hospitalization or that caused them to become unconscious for at least five minutes. And more than half of these incidents were from sports, such as ice hockey, skateboarding and soccer.

“Traumatic brain injury is preventable,” study researcher Dr. Gabreila Ilie, a post-doctoral fellow at St. Michael’s Hospital, said in a statement. “If we […]

Brain-stimulation device may aid stroke survivors with speech: study

TORONTO — An experimental procedure that stimulates the brain with electrical pulses through the skull may help people recover the ability to speak after suffering a stroke, researchers say.

Up to 30 per cent of stroke survivors are left with a condition called aphasia, in which they have difficulty understanding language, speaking, reading or writing.

In a small study, Canadian and German researchers tested the effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, on patients recovering from a stroke but left with different degrees of aphasia caused by the damage to their brains.

Twenty-four stroke patients were enrolled in the trial, with 13 getting TMS and 11 treated with a sham procedure. Following the sessions, participants were immediately given speech language […]

F.A.S.T. Thinking Saves Lives From Stroke

Doctors have long known that the sooner a stroke is treated, the better the outcome. But now a new study finds just how much each minute counts.

For each 15-minute head start doctors get on treating stroke, they cut the risk of stroke symptoms and death by 4 percent, according to the study of more than 58,300 ischemic stroke patients published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. What’s more, every 15 minutes also improves how you leave the hospital, with a 4 percent increased likelihood of walking out and a 3 percent increased chance of heading home instead of going […]

1 in 4 stroke victims experiences PTSD, study finds

Post-traumatic stress disorder, known as PTSD, is not just a problem for military veterans, sexual assault survivors and other crime victims — it also plagues many stroke victims, according to new research.

The study, published online Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, reports that 23% of stroke and mini-stroke victims surveyed within one year of the event suffered from PTSD. In addition, 11% of stroke victims surveyed more than a year after the event reported that they experienced PTSD.

A stroke occurs when an artery carrying essential oxygen and nutrients to the brain is blocked or bursts, causing damage to the brain and potentially impairing speech, sight and motor control. A mini-stroke, also […]

Kanata 5 cyclist back riding on the road

An Ottawa man who suffered a life-threatening brain injury when he and four other cyclists were struck in a 2009 hit-and-run is back doing something medical experts said would never happen: he’s riding again.

Robert Wein was hit while cycling on a stretch of March Road in Kanata in the early morning of July 19, 2009 and suffered the most serious injuries of the five cyclists. Doctors said he had only a 50 per cent chance of surviving, and said he was not likely to walk or ride again.

But Wein has made great progress, though his speech still falters and he needs a walker to help him get around.

His latest accomplishment: learning to ride a recumbent three-wheeler, the […]

Pentagon Hopes Brain Tissue Research Will Help Prevent Injuries

Some 260,000 cases of traumatic brain injury or TBI have been reported among U.S. service members from their time serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Well, now the Defense Department has decided to set up a brain tissue bank to better understand, treat and prevent brain injury. The tissue repository will be under the direction of neuropathologist Dr. Daniel Perl, and he joins me now. Welcome to the program.

DR. DANIEL PERL: Thank you.

BLOCK: And how will the brain tissue bank work?

PERL: Well, the brain tissue bank will collect specimens from deceased service members whose families have decided to donate the brain for use in […]

U.S. Military Establishes Brain Tissue Repository For Study Of Traumatic Brain Injury

The U.S. military has established what may be the world’s first repository of brain tissue for the study of traumatic brain injury (TBI), which is said to be the “signature” injury of the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In furthering the study of the condition with hope for better prevention and treatment, the military will ask for persmission from families of deceased service members to retain specimens. They hope to collect several hundred samples for study by researchers.

“We have been at war for more than a decade and our men and women have sacrificed,” Dr. Jonathan Woodson, assistant secretary of defense, told reporters. “The military health care system is bringing all the resources it can to better […]

What 20 Minutes Of Yoga Does For Your Brain

Just 20 minutes of yoga could help your brain function better, according to a small new study.

Researchers found that people did better — both speed-wise and accuracy-wise — on brain functioning tests after just 20 minutes of Hatha yoga, compared with aerobic exercise.

“It appears that following yoga practice, the participants were better able to focus their mental resources, process information quickly, more accurately and also learn, hold and update pieces of information more effectively than after performing an aerobic exercise bout,” study researcher Neha Gothe, a professor of kinesiology, health and sport studies at the university, said in a statement. Gothe conducted the study while a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“The […]

Poll reveals Canadians’ misunderstandings about stroke

New figures released by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada suggest that Canadians don’t have a great understanding of strokes, nor what’s involved in recovering from one.

The poll found that half of all Canadians have a close friend or family member who has had a stroke, yet many don’t realize that it can take patients weeks or months to recover.

Dr. Sean Dukelow, a researcher at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary who focuses on stroke, says he’s particularly struck by the myth that one in five Canadians thinks a stroke is always fatal.

“That’s not the case; only about 10 per cent of people pass on after they have a stroke,” Dukelow explained to […]

Education sessions around the province offer practical advice to people who’ve had strokes — and their loved ones

Ray McDonald was able to move a toe, just a tiny bit, on his immobilized left side after he awoke from emergency surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. “You know what that means?” his doctor asked. “That means you’ll walk again.” Now, two years after a hemorrhagic stroke flooded the right side of this brain with blood, McDonald is not only walking, but also telling other stroke survivors to not lose faith in the wonders of human resilience. That’s despite the fact he can’t see out of the left side of each eye, a condition called hemianopsia, a type of vision impairment that’s not uncommon after a stroke. So he takes a white cane with him […]

Light Therapy May Improve Sleep, Cognition After Brain Injury

Best known as a treatment for seasonal affective disorder, bright light therapy may improve sleep, cognition, emotion and brain function following mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), according to a new study.

The study found that six weeks of morning bright light therapy resulted in a marked decrease in daytime sleepiness.

This improvement was associated with improvements in the propensity to fall asleep and night-time sleep quality, according to the study.

The bright light therapy also affected depressive symptoms, researchers said.

“Our preliminary data suggests that morning bright light therapy might be helpful to reduce subjective daytime sleepiness and to improve night-time sleep,” said Mareen Weber, Ph.D., an instructor in psychiatry at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School.

“Importantly, […]

Cyclists, Wear Your Helmet: Your Brain will Thank You

For some of us, it’s just plain common sense. But for others, fear of hat hair may be all it takes to shift bike riders away from safety.

However, a new study confirms what many of us have thought all along. The rate of bicycle-related fatalities are significantly lower in states with helmet laws.

Existing research shows that cyclists who wear helmets have an 88 percent lower risk of brain injury, but researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital found that simply having bicycle helmet laws in place showed a 20 percent decrease in deaths and injuries for children younger than 16 who were in bicycle-motor vehicle collisions.

West Vancouver stroke survivor a champion for the cause

THOMAS Dignum is among the Lower Mainland residents going to bat for the B.C. Children’s Hospital Foundation next weekend at a fundraising slo-pitch tournament.

The 12-year-old West Vancouver resident and Grade 6 student at Ridgeview elementary is not only going to have an opportunity to hit the field, the three-day event is giving him and his family an opportunity to share their story as Thomas is the event’s Champion.

“He really is the ideal miracle story,” says Thomas’ mother Tracy. At age six, Thomas, out of nowhere, collapsed at school. Doctors discovered he had suffered a massive stroke in his brain stem. He subsequently underwent a life-saving procedure at B.C. Children’s Hospital that had never been done before on […]

Novel Brain Training Device to Reconnect Brain and Paralyzed Limb After Stroke

The world’s first Brain Training Device has given a ray of new hope to the recovery of survivors after stroke. Developed by researchers of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU)’s Interdisciplinary Division of Biomedical Engineering (BME), this novel device which can detect brainwave, and thereby control the movement of paralyzed limbs, or go even further to control a robotic hand based on its sophisticated algorithm.

The research was led by Prof. Raymond Tong Kai-yu, Professor of PolyU’s Interdisciplinary Division of Biomedical Engineering, who is also the Principal Investigator of the award-winning Exoskeleton Hand Robotic Training Device or the “Hand of Hope.” His team members include the BME research team (Newmen Ho, Xiaoling Hu, Ching-hang Fong, Xinxin Lou, Lawrence […]

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