December 21, 2021
A small region of the brain called the anterior thalamus could hold the key for restoring memory function after a traumatic brain injury. Researchers in New Zealand and the University of Oxford in the UK have shown that targeted electrical stimulation of the anterior thalamus could help with memory restoration in patients with brain injury.
Given how complex the brain is, scientists do not fully understand the extent to which memory impairments following TBI or stroke are caused by irreversible tissue loss and are therefore not treatable or by treatable dysfunctions in the wider brain networks. The hypothesis tested in this study is that lost memory function may be in part due to network dysfunction that can be improved with targeted stimulation. The results of this study support this thesis and could ultimately revolutionize therapies for memory defects. Read More
January 10, 2018
A treatment protocol combining Ritalin, a stimulant commonly used for ADHD, and a form of Cognitive Behavioral Rehabilitation known as “Memory and Attention Adaptation Training” (MAAT) shows great promise for improving persistent traumatic brain injury (TBI) symptoms, including attention, episodic and working memory and executive function. The research supporting this finding, led by Thomas McAllister and Brenna McDonald at the Indiana School of Medicine, was published in 2017 in the journal of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Read More
May 21, 2014
Recent research has shown that traumatic brain injury, (TBI) including mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), can damage and cause dysfunction in the pituitary gland, a pea-sized gland located in the center of the skull that releases several essential hormones affecting such functions as growth and metabolism (part of the neuroendocrine system). Researchers have found that a surprisingly high percentage of patients with persistent symptoms following a TBI show evidence of neuroendocrine dysfunction.
It turns out that the anatomy of this gland makes it particularly susceptible to the sheering injuries seen in TBI. The most common dysfunction found after TBI is deficiency in the Growth Hormone (GH), one of the key hormones released by the pituitary gland. The symptoms of GH deficiency overlap with many persistent TBI symptoms including fatigue, poor memory, depression, emotional lability, lack of concentration and attention difficulties. Read More
June 19, 2013
Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have just published a study in the peer-reviewed journal Radiology showing that soccer players who “head” the ball with high frequency show abnormalities in the white matter of their brains and poorer memory scores on cognitive tests. Read More
