Objectively measuring physical pain has been impossible. Doctors have relied on a patient’s self-report. And when asked to compensate accident victims for pain and su
ffering, so have juries.
But all that may soon change. Recently Stanford University researchers have used brain images and computer technology to assess pain. In this study, a computer
Following a recent threat by Air Canada to pull its sponsorship dollars, the NHL announced a revision of the NHL Protocol for Concussion Evaluation and Management. The Protocol now requires:
Array tomography is a state-of-the-art imaging system invented by Stanford University researchers. It allows researchers to count the myriad connections between nerve cells, as well as to catalog those connections’ surprising variety.
A typical healthy human brain contains about 200 billion nerve cells, or neurons, linked to one another via hundreds of trillions of tiny
“Second Impact Syndrome” refers to mild brain injuries suffered repeatedly within a short period (hours, days, or weeks). Although all brain injuries are serious, second impacts can be catastrophic or even fatal. The American Academy of Neurology has developed guidelines for deciding when it is safe to return to play after a first injury.
An impact on one side of the head can cause the pudding-like substance of the brain to hit the inside of the skull and then bounce back and hit the inside of the skull on the opposite side of the head. When the brain suffers two injuries from one impact, it is called a
