The first study of concussions first appeared in The Hippocratic Corpus, which is a collection of medical works from Ancient Greece. It discussed how different factors like loss of speech, hearing and sight resulted from “commotions of the brain” or head trauma. This concept of understanding consciousness was accepted until the 19th century. The first known person to write about concussions was Persian physician, Muhammad ibn Zakariya Razi in 10th century AD. It is believed that he was the first to use the term “cerebral concussion”. He defined this condition as a transient loss of function with no physical damage. His research and definition of the condition was the foundation of understanding what concussions are and how they affect us. Lanfranc of Milan was another known scientist who laid down a foundation in the study of concussions in the 13th century. He described concussions as brain “commotion”. He recognized the difference between concussions and other types of traumatic brain injury, which set Lanfranc apart since other scientists, at the time, had not discussed the differences in brain conditions. In the 14th century, a surgeon named Guy de Chauliac contributed to the research of this condition and stated the relatively good prognosis of concussions, as compared to more severe types of head trauma such as skull fracture and penetrating head trauma. Research and ExperimentationA Stanford biology student, along with researchers from the National Institutes of Health, have created a method of observing immediate effects of concussions in real time using mice. Their work shows how individual cells react to a concussion and has helped them suggest an approach to limiting the brain damage in humans. Most direct research on traumatic brain injuries take place after the subject has died, so not much is known about the happenings of the cells in the initial hours after the injury. Because of this, it is more difficult to research, discover, and develop therapies to prevent the damage happening in the first place. This group, however, was able to design a model so that they could inflict an injury on a mouse’s brain and image cells with an intracranial microscope. With this research, the injury could be observed starting at five minutes which provides insight into brain injuries that has never before been available. The meninges is the brain’s first line of defense. The meninges is a thin layer of tissue wrapped around the brain that creates an almost impermeable barrier to harmful molecules. This group’s research shows that the meninges can become damaged at the direct injury site. This tears blood vessels and causes hemorrhaging. This damage allows toxic innards to leak into healthy brain cells. The brain fights back by attempting to plug holes in the meninges, but he patchwork isn't perfect and some potentially toxic molecules are still able to reach the brain cells. So within 10-12 hours after the injury, brain cells start to die. Find out more: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/december/traumatic-brain-experiment-121013.html |