Research & Development World

  • R&D World Home
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Careers
    • Chemistry
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Software
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
    • Semiconductors
  • R&D Market Pulse
  • R&D 100
    • Call for Nominations: The 2025 R&D 100 Awards
    • R&D 100 Awards Event
    • R&D 100 Submissions
    • Winner Archive
    • Explore the 2024 R&D 100 award winners and finalists
  • Resources
    • Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • Educational Assets
    • R&D Index
    • Subscribe
    • Video
    • Webinars
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Top Labs
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE

Concussions Loosen Insulation Around Brain Cells

By University of British Columbia | September 4, 2018

Detailed scans of concussed university hockey players found that the protective fatty tissue surrounding brain cell fibers was loosened two weeks after the injury–even though the athletes felt fine and were deemed ready to return to the ice.

A loosening of that insulation, called myelin, slows the transmission of electrical signals between brain cells, or neurons. Researchers have previously shown in animals that this loosened myelin can completely deteriorate with subsequent blows–a condition that resembles the neurodegenerative disease multiple sclerosis.

“This is the first solid evidence in humans that concussions loosen myelin,” said Alex Rauscher, an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Canada Research Chair in Developmental Neuroimaging at the University of British Columbia. “And it was detected two weeks after the concussion, when the players said they felt fine and were deemed ready to play through standard return-to-play evaluations. So athletes may be returning to play sooner than they should.”

Published this month in Frontiers in Neurology, this is the third study arising from the unusual before-and-after study of UBC hockey players. The 45 athletes had their brains scanned with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) before the season began; if they were concussed, they were re-scanned three days afterwards, two weeks afterwards, and two months afterwards. Eleven athletes were concussed during the season, and most of them underwent the additional MRI scans.

Conventional MRI imaging–the kind done in hospitals to assess brain injury–does not reveal myelin loosening. Rauscher and postdoctoral research fellow Alex Weber used advanced digital analysis of the scans, using a UBC-developed, pixel-based statistical analysis to find changes that visual inspection could not reveal.

Previous analysis of the concussed athletes’ scans, published by Rauscher in 2016, had shown changes to the myelin in the corpus callosum–the part of the brain that helps the brain’s two hemispheres communicate, and is most susceptible to damage from sudden collisions against the interior of the skull. But the researchers didn’t know whether the myelin was diminished, akin to multiple sclerosis, or altered in some other way.

The good news is that it was something else–a temporary loosening around the nerve fibers that connect brain cells. When the concussed players were re-scanned two months after their concussions, their myelin had returned to normal.

But Weber says the findings provide a convincing reason to keep concussed athletes on the bench even if they no longer exhibit any symptoms, as measured by a standard test of cognitive abilities, balance, coordination and mood.

“These results show that there is some damage happening below the surface at least two weeks after a concussion,” Weber says. “Passing a concussion test may not be a reliable indicator of whether their brain has truly healed. We might need to build in more waiting time to prevent any long-term damage.”

Related Articles Read More >

5 R&D developments to keep an eye on this week: Solar crash and Trump’s energy pivot meets Musk’s rebellion
Mayo Clinic develops AI tool that can spot 9 dementia types with a single scan
Google DeepMind’s AlphaGenome AI predicts how non-coding DNA can drive disease
Top 10 drugs by patent volume: How biologics build ‘platform empires’ while small molecule create ‘patent thickets’
rd newsletter
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest info on technologies, trends, and strategies in Research & Development.
RD 25 Power Index

R&D World Digital Issues

Fall 2024 issue

Browse the most current issue of R&D World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading R&D magazine today.

Research & Development World
  • Subscribe to R&D World Magazine
  • Enews Sign Up
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing
  • Global Funding Forecast

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search R&D World

  • R&D World Home
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Careers
    • Chemistry
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Software
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
    • Semiconductors
  • R&D Market Pulse
  • R&D 100
    • Call for Nominations: The 2025 R&D 100 Awards
    • R&D 100 Awards Event
    • R&D 100 Submissions
    • Winner Archive
    • Explore the 2024 R&D 100 award winners and finalists
  • Resources
    • Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • Educational Assets
    • R&D Index
    • Subscribe
    • Video
    • Webinars
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Top Labs
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE