On Brain Health | Will the Brain Heal Itself after a Severe Brain Injury?

TED TALK |  After a traumatic brain injury, it sometimes happens that the brain can repair itself, building new brain cells to replace damaged ones.

But the repair doesn't happen quickly enough to allow recovery from degenerative conditions like motor neuron disease (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease or ALS).

Siddharthan Chandran, a regenative neurologist, walks through some new techniques using special stem cells that could allow the damaged brain to rebuild faster.  In a related topic, Siddharthan Chandran also explores how to heal damage from degenerative disorders such as MS and motor neuron disease (ALS).

In a TED Talk, Siddharthan Chandran states:

Well, you know what? I think there is hope. 

And there's hope in this next section, of this brain section of somebody else with M.S., because what it illustrates is, amazingly, the brain can repair itself. It just doesn't do it well enough. And so again, there are two things I want to show you. 

First of all is the damage of this patient with M.S. And again, it's another one of these white masses. But crucially, the area that's ringed red highlights an area that is pale blue. But that area that is pale blue was once white. So it was damaged. It's now repaired. 

Just to be clear: It's not because of doctors. It's in spite of doctors, not because of doctors. This is spontaneous repair. It's amazing and it's occurred because there are stem cells in the brain, even, which can enable new myelin, new insulation, to be laid down over the damaged nerves. And this observation is important for two reasons. 

The first is it challenges one of the orthodoxies that we learnt at medical school, or at least I did, admittedly last century, which is that the brain doesn't repair itself, unlike, say, the bone or the liver. But actually it does, but it just doesn't do it well enough. 

And the second thing it does, and it gives us a very clear direction of travel for new therapies -- I mean, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to know what to do here. You simply need to find ways of promoting the endogenous, spontaneous repair that occurs anyway."

See and hear Siddharthan Chandran's 2013 TED Talk by click here:
"Can the Damaged Brain Repair Itself?"

Join Brainline.org | 7 Things People with a Brain Injury Would Like to Hear...

NEW YORK CITY —   TBI as defined by the people who are living with it ...

BrainLine asked its online community to share the things they would most like to hear from their friends and family, and the list below captures some of the many responses so generously provided by people with TBI.

Every individual’s experience with traumatic brain injury is unique, but there are many common symptoms and emotions. Anger, fear, sadness, and anxiety may be accompanied by difficulties with memory, pain, and the challenges of maintaining relationships.

We encourage you to add your own definitions in the comments section below, and to join the BrainLine community on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.

1. I'm sorry. How can I help?
– Alison

2. Please tell me what having a TBI is like. Can you tell me where I can read more about TBI?
– Melody

3. I don't know how you feel, but you are my friend and I will always be there for you.
– AmyRenee

4. I admire your willpower. You will get through this.
– Amina

5. I know I don't understand what it's like, but I will try my hardest to be patient and understanding.
– Christy

6. Take your time — we are not in a hurry.
– Lisa

7. I don't know what to say but I'm sorry it happened to you.
– Crystal

Please join the BrainLine community on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.

Simple Self-Esteem Boosts That Improve Emotional Strength

NEW YORK CITY:  When our self-esteem is poor we are likely to experience greater drops in motivation after a failure, and to demonstrate less persistence toward the task at hand.

Lower self-esteem even makes us more vulnerable to anxiety and stress. Studies found that when our self-esteem is low we release more cortisol into our bloodstream when we experience stress and it circulates in our systems for longer compared to people whose self-esteem is high.

Those whose self-esteem was boosted displayed significantly less anxiety those who did not receive a self-esteem boost. Rest assured, no electrical shock was then administered -- but the participants did believe they were about to get zapped.

So, if boosting our self-esteem can improve our emotional immune systems, how can we give ourselves this extra fortification when our self-esteem is at a low?

One of the most effective self-esteem boosters is self-affirmations. In contrast to positive affirmations (which are general positive statements such as, "I am worthy of great love and success!" and which we might or might not actually believe), self-affirmation reflect personal qualities we know we possess.

From Clinical psychologist Guy Winch's Huffington Post article.

Strength Building Self-Statements 

1. What’s the worst that can happen? And based on my experience, and NOT on my emotions, how likely is that to happen? 

2. Feelings are sometimes painful, but are time-limited. 

3. It will get easier each time I practice. 

4. My success is measured by taking skillful action, not by whether I was anxious when I did it. 

5. I’m not going to let a lapse get in my way. I’m going to continue making progress towards my goal. 

6. Feeling I can’t do it is NOT the same as not being able to do it. Stick to the plan. 

7. Good job—I’m staying in the situation, even though it’s hard. 

8. I’m going to make it. 

9. It’s a sign of strength to ask for help in an effective way. 

10. Knowing when to ask for coaching is a skill in itself. 

11. I am a unique person, and I have unique reactions. Only I can determine how I SHOULD feel in any given situation. 

12. My feelings are not right or wrong, they just simply ARE. 

13. A feeling of certainty is not the same as the truth. 

14. My painful emotions happen for a reason and are an important source of information and direction for me. 

15. Urges are a natural part of emotions and of being human. Having an urge (even a strong urge) does not mean that I have to DO anything at all.

Cure for TBI | FDA Gives Thumbs Up to BrainScope Device

NEW YORK CITY |   Can a second-generation system offer an objective assessment of mildly-presenting head trauma patients?  It seems quite possible when this system uses commercial smartphone technology.

BrainScope Company, Inc. announced today that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the company’s Ahead 200 device.

Using commercial smartphone hardware that employs Google’s Android operating system, the Ahead 200 records and analyzes a patient’s electroencephalograph (EEG) using a custom sensor attached to the handheld to provide an interpretation of the structural condition of the patient’s brain after head injury.

In late 2012, BrainScope announced that it had been awarded a $2.67 million contract by the United States Army for development of the Ahead 200, a smaller, more rugged and modernized version of its Ahead 100 traumatic brain injury assessment technology.

Similar to the Ahead 100, which was cleared this past November, it is indicated for use as an adjunct to standard clinical practice to aid in the evaluation of patients who are being considered for a head Computerized Tomography (CT) scan, but should not be used as a substitute for a CT scan. It is to be used on patients who sustained a closed head injury within 24 hours, clinically present as a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), and are between the ages of 18-80 years.

“We are particularly grateful for the strong, continuing partnership with the Department of Defense,” stated Michael Singer, President and CEO of BrainScope. “FDA Clearance of our Ahead 200 represents a significant achievement in BrainScope’s mission to develop an objective, non-invasive, patient-friendly assessment device for rapid and easy use in urgent care settings. A device with the ability to rapidly identify and categorize patients who present with mild symptoms but who may have a life-threatening TBI has the potential to improve triage, save lives, reduce radiation exposure and decrease costs to the healthcare system.”

In September 2014, BrainScope announced that it had been awarded three contracts valued at $15.93 million by the United States Department of Defense for continued research and development of the Ahead system.

These contracts support enhancement of BrainScope’s Ahead technology and current nationwide, multi-site clinical studies in hospital Emergency Rooms, and extend its TBI focus to concussion assessment technology. Studies in concussed athletes are underway in cooperation with university sports programs. These activities leverage six years of BrainScope studies in sports venues, including a study awarded through the GE-NFL Head Health Challenge I.

“The Ahead 200 project in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense has culminated in another important FDA Clearance and has allowed us to leverage the ubiquitous Android mobile operating system and advances in handheld processing technology fueled by the smartphone market to develop and ultimately commercialize our products. We continue to refine the ultimate product through our ongoing clinical studies and technology development,” stated Singer.

Results from independent clinical studies utilizing BrainScope’s technology have been published through 15 articles in leading peer-reviewed neurotrauma and emergency medicine journals such as Journal of Neurotrauma, Brain Injury, Academic Emergency Medicine, Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, The American Journal of Emergency Medicine, and Military Medicine.

BrainScope holds 86 issued and pending patents related to its technology.

BrainScope has been awarded more than $27 million of U.S. Department of Defense research contracts for the development of its TBI assessment technology and has received significant funding from private investors to accelerate its development efforts.

About BrainScope

Backed by Revolution (created by AOL co-founder Steve Case), Shaman Ventures, ZG Ventures, State of Maryland Venture Fund, Brain Trust Accelerator Fund, and Difference Capital, BrainScope is a medical neurotechnology company that is developing a new generation of hand-held, easy-to-use, non-invasive instruments designed to aid medical professionals in rapidly and objectively assessing TBI.

BrainScope devices in development are based on a proprietary technology platform, which integrates databases of brainwave recordings with advanced digital signal processing, sophisticated algorithms, miniaturized hardware and disposable headset sensors. BrainScope's unique devices are being created to meet a long-standing clinical need for improved early identification, staging and triage of head injured patients. BrainScope devices under development, including the Ahead 300 and the Ahead Concussion Assessment System, for assessment of traumatically-induced structural head injury and concussion are for investigational use only. For more information, please visit www.brainscope.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150518006746/en/

On Mental Relaxation | "Hit the Reset Button in Your Brain"

Matthieu Bourel / New York Times

NEW YORK CITY:  It's summer in New York City.  It's the first week of August. Taking summer breaks isn't just restorative. It's become a ritual.

So it makes sense to look back at Daniel J. Levitin's opinion essay in the Sunday Review section of the New York Times.  It was published on August 9, 2014. Exactly a year ago.

Daniel J. Levitin is the director of the Laboratory for Music, Cognition and Expertise at McGill University and the author of The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload.

To read the entire essay, please click here: Daniel Leviton's NYT Essay.

What follows is only a excerpt from an intelligent essay. Read it. Then go over to the New York Times. What Levitin wrote is worth sharing.

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES
THIS month, many Americans will take time off from work to go on vacation, catch up on household projects and simply be with family and friends. And many of us will feel guilty for doing so. We will worry about all of the emails piling up at work, and in many cases continue to compulsively check email during our precious time off.

But beware the false break. Make sure you have a real one. The summer vacation is more than a quaint tradition. Along with family time, mealtime and weekends, it is an important way that we can make the most of our beautiful brains.

Every day we’re assaulted with facts, pseudofacts, news feeds and jibber-jabber, coming from all directions. According to a 2011 study, on a typical day, we take in the equivalent of about 174 newspapers’ worth of information, five times as much as we did in 1986. As the world’s 21,274 television stations produce some 85,000 hours of original programming every day (by 2003 figures), we watch an average of five hours of television per day. For every hour of YouTube video you watch, there are 5,999 hours of new video just posted!

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, there’s a reason: The processing capacity of the conscious mind is limited. This is a result of how the brain’s attentional system evolved. Our brains have two dominant modes of attention: the task-positive network and the task-negative network (they’re called networks because they comprise distributed networks of neurons, like electrical circuits within the brain). The task-positive network is active when you’re actively engaged in a task, focused on it, and undistracted; neuroscientists have taken to calling it the central executive. The task-negative network is active when your mind is wandering; this is the daydreaming mode. These two attentional networks operate like a seesaw in the brain: when one is active the other is not.

To read the entire essay, please click here:  Daniel Leviton's NYT Essay.

Understanding TBI | Bridge Advocacy Project

An Advocacy Project
By 2014–2015 Class of Bridge Program at Mount Sinai Hospital Rehab Center

NEW YORK CITY — Participants of the 2014–2015 Bridge Program at Mount Sinai Hospital's Rehabilitation Center were given the task of creating and producing an Advocacy Project that would raise the public's awareness of TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury).

Since these participants are affected by TBI, they put their heads together to come up with a board presentation that would be featured on the Rehab Center's hallway, which is located at 5 East 102nd Street in East Harlem.  This TBI Advocacy Project began in November 2014 and was completed in May 2015. It involved heavy research.

All of these Bridge participants are outpatients and affected TBI.  They entitled the board project as "Understanding TBI."  Keep revisiting this blog to see posts that feature sections of the project. Ultimately, you will see the entire TBI Advocacy Project board.  

These industrious Bridge participants look forward to hearing — and learning about —your reactions to their TBI Advocacy Project.