3 ARTICLES CONCERNING MILD TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY (CONCUSSION) DUE TO SPORTS
ARTICLE #1
TITLE
Why CTE Is More Common Than You Think
DESCRIPTION
This is a very timely article given that football season is just beginning. The article explains CTE: “chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the devastating neurodegenerative disease linked to concussions and repetitive head trauma from football and other contact sports.” This article describes the causes, symptoms, and injury to the brain when concussions occur due to head trauma. There are excellent graphics and the article is easy to understand. This article would be useful in discussing both what happens with brain trauma and organic abnormal behavioral and personality problems. Students with an interest in sports will find the article especially engaging.
(Includes a 7 minute video on football, concussions, and CTE)
SOURCE
USA TODAY, August, 24, 2018, by Nancy Armour
LINK TO RESOURCE
(Tiny URL) http://tinyurl.com/yc9ngzxt
ARTICLE #2
TITLE
For Kids With Concussions, Less Time Alone in a Dark Room
DESCRIPTION
While all of the attention regarding head trauma and confusion injuries has been focused on football players, there has been little in the public media regarding these events in children who have accidents involving head injuries. This article discusses new guidelines that discusses these injuries, treatment, and prevention. These guidelines replace the older guidelines that prescribed isolation in a darkened room. “Having a truly evidence-based guideline should help clinicians personalize the care that children receive and the ways they gradually reintegrate into activities and sports, she said, rather than applying rigid rules — and should generally encourage an earlier return to non-risky activity.” This article can be engaging for students when the chapters on brain and nervous system are covered in the class. It makes the information from the text more relevant with the application of these data.
SOURCE
New York Times, September 17, 2018, by Perri Klass
LINK TO RESOURCE
(Tiny URL) http://tinyurl.com/ybw2xarp
ARTICLE #3
TITLE
How Virtual Reality and Sideline Brain Scans Could Help Diagnose Concussions
DESCRIPTION
The article is timely in that football season is beginning and reports of mild brain trauma due to concussions will be in the news. Also, most likely the course is covering brain and nervous system or about to do so. Additionally, the topic can be engaging to students who can use the article to be an application to their learning the text/lecture material. The article details the difficulty in diagnosing concussions and mild brain trauma at the time of a head injury on the field in sports (including football, wrestling, soccer, and so on). The new technology discussed in this article (including Virtual Reality) is being used on the sidelines immediately at the time of the injury. The technology enables practitioners to make a quick determination as to the extent of the seriousness of the injury. Use this article to discuss the brain and nervous system, neurological injuries, and include the professionals’ role in career possibilities that psychologists can play in sports not only as sports psychologist, and also in rehabilitation in mild traumatic brain injury.
(includes a 3 minute video about the technology: Eye Sync)
SOURCE
Smithsonian, September 10, 2018, by Matthew Berger
LINK TO RESOURCE
(Tiny URL) http://tinyurl.com/ybl996lu
CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
•What is concussion? What is CTE? (symptoms and long term consequences)
•What are the physical, psychological, and cognitive symptoms?
•What happens to the brain and nervous system due to a concussion?
•How have the guidelines changed for both prevention and treating children with concussion injuries?
• Discuss the issues of assessment of concussion and the new use of VR technology.
(see the Website of the Week, and also the Podcast of the Week for this date 10/15/2018)
• Use the topic for student engagement and outside research as a motivator to make the biological psychology topic engaging.
Leave a Reply