Trauma: May 2011 Archives

Riffing on the seemingly growing trend of former professional athletes providing their brains to the Center for Traumatic Encephalopathy (see here, for example), writers for The Onion report, "Neurologists Implore Professional Athletes to Wait Until They Are Dead to Send in Brains for Research."

The God-bless-em scribblers even went so far as to fact-check the president of the American Academy of Neurology.*

* Although I suspect they used an actor in their accompanying photo to convey a presumptive neurologist's on-the-mark expression of worry, confusion, and mild exasperation.

Former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson had "moderately advanced" chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), according to yesterday's press release from Boston University's Center for CTE. Duerson, 50, who committed suicide in February, had, in an unusual move, specifically directed that his brain be studied by the Center. He shot himself in the chest to facilitate the thorough examination of his brain.

Coverage of this story from MedPage Today and the WSJ Health Blog are short on specifics, but the latter indicates that 13 of 14 brains of former NFL players that have been studied so far by the Center showed signs of CTE. Changes in Duerson's brain were located in the frontal and temporal lobes, the amygdala, and the hippocampus, according to reports.