News & Headlines

If professional athletes are meant to be real-life superheroes, Miami Dolphins star Tua Tagovailoa looked remarkably mortal on September 12. With his team down 31-10 in the third quarter against the Buffalo Bills, the quarterback spotted a gap at the line of scrimmage and decided to scramble for a first down. When he encountered Bills' defender Damar Hamlin, Tagovailoa lowered his head and ran straight into him. Tagovailoa stayed down injured after the play. He had suffered the third concussion of his NFL career, on top of the one he was diagnosed with during his time in the collegiate ranks.

A high school senior from Bangor, Maine, has decided that when the time comes, he will donate his brain to science. Fionn Parker-Cummings is the youngest person to donate his brain to the University of Pittsburgh National Sports Brain Bank. Researchers will check in with him every year for the rest of his life. Parker-Cummings said he hopes the contribution will advance traumatic brain injury research to protect players like NFL quarterbacks Drake Maye and Tua Tagovailoa, who have recently suffered concussions.

The American College of Surgeons (ACS) has announced the release of its revised Best Practices Guidelines in the Management of Traumatic Brain Injury, offering healthcare providers comprehensive strategies to improve the care and outcomes of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Western University researchers are taking a unique global approach to finding an effective treatment for people living with long COVID. Led by Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry professor Dr. Douglas Fraser, the projects represent the first multi-continental research conducted on long COVID, with study sites in Africa and North and South Americas. The long-term effects of long COVID – including symptoms such as brain fog, fatigue and difficulty breathing – can be debilitating and greatly impact quality of life. At least 65 million people around the world are affected by the condition. 

The family of the Army reservist who committed the October 2023 massacre in Lewiston wants to bring awareness to traumatic brain injuries among military members.

A multi-institutional team of investigators has discovered that targeting a specific neural circuit through noninvasive neuromodulation may help reduce symptoms in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to a recent study published in Nature Neuroscience. Jordan Grafman, PhD, professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and director of Brain Injury Research at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, was a co-author of the study.

A quick shake of the head after a hard hit could signal that a person has a concussion, a new study suggests, based on the experiences of young athletes. It’s an easily recognizable movement that could help significantly reduce the number of concussions that go undiagnosed if added to official evaluation guidelines, according to researchers from Mass General Brigham and the Concussion Legacy Foundation.

Genetic tests showed that certain patients were predisposed to brain injuries if they took the drugs. That information remained secret.

IT WAS GETTING late the night of Sept. 12, and Dr. Julian Bailes had settled in to watch a little football. The renowned neurosurgeon and concussions expert tuned in just as Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained yet another head injury. There was Tagovailoa, lying on the ground with his arms outstretched and his fingers curled into the fencing response, an involuntary position that occurs after a brain injury. To Bailes, it looked almost like a replay from a previous Thursday night game, Sept. 29, 2022, with Tagovailoa on his back, his fingers splayed in front of his face in another automatic response to a concussion.

The blast shook the ground and its red flash of fire covered the doorway as U.S. special operations forces blew open a door during a recent training exercise. Moments later, in their next attempt, the boom was noticeably suppressed and the blaze a bit smaller, testament to just one of the new technologies that U.S. Special Operations Command is using to limit the brain injuries that have become a growing problem for the military.

A California veteran was booted off a Delta Air Lines flight because her T-shirt that featured a message about veteran suicide rates in the U.S. Catherine Banks was supposed to fly out of San Francisco on Wednesday, but instead she was forced off the plane by a flight attendant who found her shirt 'threatening.' The shirt read: 'Do not give in to the war within. End veteran suicide.'

It has been 24 years since a pharmaceutical was last approved for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The condition is notoriously difficult to treat, with up to 40% patients finding no relief from symptoms through psychotherapy or current medications. Many clinicians, advocates, and patients had pinned their hopes on the psychedelic drug midomafetamine with assisted therapy (MDMA-AT). However, in August, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rejected it. At this point, it’s unclear when the therapy will be available, if ever.