News & Headlines

Chronic insomnia, which affects 5 percent to 10 percent of older adults, is more than just exhausting. It’s also linked to an increased risk of developing hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, heart attack, depression, anxiety and premature death. It may also be a risk factor for dementia, especially Alzheimer’s disease.

Ontario fans of the Toronto Raptors watching a championship finals game last week suddenly saw a rough TV ad about the risks of concussions—a young women was hurt in a soccer game and started to bleed from her nose, but kept playing because she is "doin' whatever it takes." The ad was part of the provincial government's hard push against concussions in its Hit-Stop-Sit campaign. The goal is to ensure young people across canada are safer by requiring checks if a young athlete appears to have suffered a concussion. The campaign covers coaches, families and athletes.

Physician, post-traumatic stress disorder specialist, trauma scientist and author Shaili Jain talks about how humans are inclined to deny traumatic events, how long PTSD has been part of the human existence, the democratization of PTSD, the various treatments for PTSD and why it is a great time to be involved in the study of the science of PTSD.

Head injuries from riding electric scooters without a helmet are on the rise, a new study reports. Between 2008 and 2017, nearly 32,000 injuries were estimated nationwide, according to a review of records in the Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury Surveillance system. The most common injuries were closed head injuries, such as concussions, and bleeding or bruising of the brain, the researchers found.

A growing number of children have experienced a brain injury—yet most teachers have never learned in preparation or professional development how to work with them. "I think people are realizing that there are a lot more of these kids out there in schools than we realized," said Ann Glang, the director and research professor at the Center on Brain Injury Research and Training at the University of Oregon. She has worked to create an online course for teachers to learn evidence-based strategies for working with students with traumatic brain injuries, including concussions. The course relaunched last month to offer teachers credit for a continuing education unit.

Millions of middle-aged Americans like Andrews now find themselves on the precipice of memory loss. Some played contact sports as kids; others have close relatives with dementia or are battling early senior moments. A number of brain disorders, including CTE, can only be officially diagnosed with an autopsy, so many people live without knowing much about the trajectories their minds are taking. To help fill these gaps, David Merrill, a psychiatrist and brain researcher at the University of California, and other doctors are researching the use of brain-measuring software along with existing brain scans called MRIs. While the new volume-based analysis is neither definitive nor foolproof, it provides detail and context that may sharpen a neurologist’s judgment of what’s happening inside the brain.

Anybody who watches a fair amount of sports is used to the concept of concussion. It's bad enough when adults get their brains rattled; it can derail a life plan for a young person working to get through school. So the University of Oregon's Center for Brain Injury Research and Training (CBIRT) started a project to help teachers help students with brain injuries. We learn about the project from CBIRT Director Ann Glang and Project Coordinator Melissa McCart in this month's edition of Curious: Research Meets Radio, our joint venture with UO.

Events that lead to homelessness are myriad and complex. Still, it can't be coincidence that over half of all homeless men in a 2014 study conducted by Neuroscience Research Program for St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, Canada were found to have sustained a traumatic brain injury, or TBI. The implications of the study's findings are huge and indicate the danger of being homeless with a brain injury are two-fold. Brain injury can lead to cognitive defects that include diminished executive function, the ability to actually do something the brain injury survivor may know intellectually they need to do, such as seek shade or water. This can add to litany of reasons life on the street and in the elements is already dangerous for anyone.