Neuroimaging shows how the brain learns mental skills

ScienceDaily (Feb. 9, 2011) — Movements become skilled and automatic with practise, so tasks like riding a bicycle can be performed without much attention or mental effort. New research by scientists at Royal Holloway, University of London provides evidence that the cerebellum, a part of the brain used to store memories for skilled movements, could also store memories important for mental skills -- such as the rules used to interpret traffic light signals.

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The prefrontal cortex, in the frontal lobe, uses problem-solving to establish the correct rules using attention, and the new research raises the possibility that the cerebellum then learns to implement them skilfully with little conscious attention, freeing the prefrontal cortex to direct attention to new problems.

The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, reports that brain imaging was used to scan volunteers during learning, and that in a part of the cerebellum known to be connected with the prefrontal cortex, activity changed from one practice trial to the next. The rate of change was faster for rules that became automatic more quickly. After practice, volunteers used simple rules quickly and accurately even when attention drawn away by a 'distractor' task performed at the same time.

Dr Ramnani, from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway said: "The study adds to the groundwork for understanding cognitive deficits in patients with cerebellar damage and improving strategies for their rehabilitation. It also raises the possibility that the cerebellum might be used for the skillful, automatic and unconscious use of mathematical and grammatical rules."

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Brain injuries rise sharply in minor hockey after bodychecking rules relaxed, Canadian study shows

ScienceDaily (Mar. 16, 2011) — Minor league hockey players in the Atom division are more than 10 times likely to suffer a brain injury since bodychecking was first allowed among the 9 and 10-year-olds, says a study led by St. Michael's Hospital neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Cusimano.

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The findings, published online in the journal Open Medicine, add to the growing evidence that bodychecking holds greater risk than benefit for youth and support widespread calls to ban the practice.

According to the researchers, led by Cusimano, director of the Injury Prevention Research Centre at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, the odds of visiting an emergency department due to a brain injury from bodychecking increased significantly among all minor hockey players after Hockey Canada relaxed bodychecking rules in the 1998/1999 season. At that time, the organization allowed, for the first time, body contact among 9 and 10 year-olds in the Atom division.

The team examined the records of 8,552 male youth 6-17 years-old who attended one of five emergency departments in Ontario for hockey related injuries that occurred before and after the rule change. Researchers found more than half of hockey-related injuries were a result of bodychecking. What's more, the risk of a head or neck injury, including concussions, increased across all minor hockey divisions.

"Our work confirmed the fact that body checking is the most common cause of injury in hockey. While proponents argue lowering the age for bodychecking helps players learn how to properly bodycheck and reduces injuries at older ages, our study clearly showed the opposite ― the risk of all injuries and especially, brain injuries, increases with exposure to bodychecking," Cusimano said. "While all age groups showed increases in injuries, the youngest were the most vulnerable and that bodychecking puts youth unnecessarily at the risk of the long-term effects of brain injuries, such as cognitive and social-behavioural problems."

For some time, researchers like Dr. Cusimano have called on organizations like the NHL to take more leadership in reducing the incidence of brain injuries. In recent weeks, pressure has mounted on the NHL after Pittsburgh Penquins captain Sidney Crosby and Montreal Canadiens' Max Pacioretty suffered serious concussions that sidelined both players.

"Ice hockey is a sport with great potential to increase the health of individuals but practices that increase the risk for the vast majority of players must be minimized," Cusimano adds. "It is now very clear that there is no benefit to any one or any group to continue to allow bodychecking. Hockey organizers, sponsors, the media, coaches, trainers, and players and parents must come together to advocate for multifaceted approaches that include changes to the rules to reduce the risk of injury."

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Radar shows promise for detecting concussions in athletes and soldiers

ScienceDaily (Apr. 26, 2011) — Walking and thinking at the same time can be especially difficult for persons who've suffered concussions, and scientists hope to use that multitasking challenge -- measured by a simple radar system -- to quickly screen individuals who may have suffered brain injuries.

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By asking an individual to walk a short distance while saying the months of the year in reverse order, researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) can determine if that person is impaired and possibly suffering from a concussion. This simple test, which could be performed on the sideline of a sporting event or on a battlefield, has the potential to help coaches and commanders decide if athletes and soldiers are ready to engage in activity again.

"When a person with a concussion performs cognitive and motor skill tasks simultaneously, they have a different gait pattern than a healthy individual, and we can identify those anomalies in a person's walk with radar," said GTRI research engineer Jennifer Palmer.

More than 1 million concussions and other mild traumatic brain injuries are reported each year in the United States and catching them right after they happen can improve treatment and prevent further injury or other long-term health issues. Diagnosing concussions can be difficult, though, because the symptoms of concussions are not always easily visible or detectable, even though they last for weeks or months following the incident. Methods exist for detecting concussions, but most focus purely on cognitive impairment and do not assess accompanying motor skill deterioration.

Details of GTRI's technique, which simultaneously examines a person's cognitive and motor skills, will be presented on April 26 at the SPIE Defense, Security and Sensing conference in Orlando. GTRI research engineers Kristin Bing and Amy Sharma, principal research scientist (ret) Eugene Greneker, and research scientist Teresa Selee also worked on this project, which is supported by the GTRI Independent Research and Development (IRAD) program.

Several studies have shown that measuring changes in gait could be used to diagnose concussions, but measuring a person's gait typically requires wearing special clothing with reflective markers or sensors so that movements can be captured with motion analysis cameras. Using radar for gait analysis would be faster and less intrusive than these existing techniques. The assessment would be done with radar systems similar to those used by police for measuring the speed of vehicles.

For their study, the GTRI research team compared how 10 healthy individuals walked normally and when impaired. For the impairment scenario, individuals wore goggles that simulated alcohol impairment. Past research has shown that concussion impairment is equivalent to having a blood alcohol level of 0.05 percent.

During the trials, each individual performed four 30-second walking tasks: a normal walk, walk while saying the months of the year in reverse order, walk while wearing the goggles, and walk while wearing the goggles and performing the cognitive task. For each task, the subjects walked away from the radar system, turned around and walked back toward the radar system.

"We're using a 10.5 gigahertz continuous wave radar, which is similar to a police officer's radar gun that measures the speed of a car," explained Bing. "The data we collect tells us the velocity of everything that's in the field of view of the radar at that time, including a person's foot kicks, and head and torso movements."

The researchers analyzed the radar data using information-theoretic techniques, which detected similarities and differences in the information without having to identify and align specific body parts. In addition, these techniques could recognize a gait anomaly without requiring that an individual's normal gait be measured before the person became impaired.

"By looking for differences in the gait patterns of normal and impaired individuals, we found that healthy individuals could be distinguished from impaired individuals wearing the goggles," explained Palmer. "Healthy individuals demonstrated a more periodic gait with regular and higher velocity foot kicks and faster torso and head movement than impaired individuals when completing a cognitive task."

The results also indicated that if no cognitive task was performed, a healthy individual's gait pattern was not statistically different when wearing and not wearing the goggles.

"We found that we needed to examine a person's physical and mental capabilities at the same time to see a change in gait and detect impairment," said Bing. "It's easy for a person to concentrate on one task, but when that person has to multitask we can begin to discriminate between someone who is impaired and someone who is not."

In the future, the researchers plan to collect additional data from healthy individuals of different heights and weights, and from individuals exhibiting concussion symptoms according to neuropsychological screening tests performed at a hospital. They also plan to reduce the size of the system so that it becomes more practical to use.

"For the military, we envision the system could fit into a tough box so that commanders can have it in the field," added Bing. "They could simply press a button, connect the radar system to a laptop, and an easy-to-use interface would display the results and tell them whether their soldier is exhibiting signs of a concussion."

Approval from the Food and Drug Administration will be required before this system can be used to diagnose concussions.

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