2 ms·

I'm not convinced that the injury is significantly different. The mechanics certainly are: rather than the the brain trauma being caused by the brain bouncing o

by eric_h 10y ago

I'm not convinced that the injury is significantly different. The mechanics certainly are: rather than the the brain trauma being caused by the brain bouncing off the skull, it's because the whole system is hit by a wave of pressure, but the end result is likely quite similar, though perhaps magnified when subject to an explosion (a holistic TBI, if you will). The difference, I suspect, is that rather than the injury being confined to a specific place that has a lesion in the brain, it's rather the entire brain that gets affected. I was in a car accident ~7 years ago that effectively erased 5 days of my life from my memory, and took me 6 months to fully recover from (though I suspect I'm still not quite the same as I was before the accident, but as far as anyone else can tell I am). The only physical remnant from that accident is a small scar on my scalp. One of the things I learned from the doctors that attempted to assess the damage to my brain is that the number of TBIs caused by IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan very much informed and changed the way that doctors treat TBIs here in the states. Also, always wear a seat belt, whatever the circumstances. I'd be dead if I hadn't been wearing one.

PeterWhittaker 10y ago
The article discusses the physical differences between concussion injuries and this other form of injury, as revealed through detailed imagining of brain tissues. I'm asking this purely out of curiosity and to foster discussion: what is about this aspect of the article you find unconvincing? Thanks!
- eric_h 10y ago
  The sense that I got from the article is that unlike "normal" TBIs, this type of brain trauma is very difficult if not impossible to see on a scan. The symptoms, on the other hand seem very very similar. The progressive degradation in cognitive ability with exposure to explosions is (to my admittedly untrained eye) exactly the same as that of multiple concussions. Which is not to say I didn't find this article interesting. I think the key difference between TBIs caused by explosions and those due to physical trauma is purely because there's no obvious lesion on the brain visible in a scan. As a result, the military treated it differently, which the article points out was a fundamental error that the military has now taken steps to correct.

by eric_h 10y ago

PeterWhittaker 10y ago

The article discusses the physical differences between concussion injuries and this other form of injury, as revealed through detailed imagining of brain tissues. I'm asking this purely out of curiosity and to foster discussion: what is about this aspect of the article you find unconvincing? Thanks!

eric_h 10y ago
The sense that I got from the article is that unlike "normal" TBIs, this type of brain trauma is very difficult if not impossible to see on a scan. The symptoms, on the other hand seem very very similar. The progressive degradation in cognitive ability with exposure to explosions is (to my admittedly untrained eye) exactly the same as that of multiple concussions. Which is not to say I didn't find this article interesting. I think the key difference between TBIs caused by explosions and those due to physical trauma is purely because there's no obvious lesion on the brain visible in a scan. As a result, the military treated it differently, which the article points out was a fundamental error that the military has now taken steps to correct.