Contact: Roxanne Yama Moster, 310-794-2264, [email protected]
For parents worried about the consequences of concussion in their children, a new UCLA study suggests that mild traumatic brain injury - a mild insult to the brain caused by an external physical force -may impair a child's brain's ability to develop to its fullest potential.
UCLA researchers report in the September issue of the Journal of Neurotrauma that in animal studies, mild traumatic brain injury limited the animal's "intelligence quotient" by 50 percent.
What does this mean for parents of kids involved in contact sports such as soccer, kickboxing and little league football? When a child sustains a mild head injury on the soccer field, does it compromise that child's potential ability to excel at a high level? Will it prevent the child from reaching full intelligence?
"While the study was performed in animals, the results suggest that if a child loses potential for brain development through a concussion - even during a short period of time - that child might lose a critical window of opportunity to develop certain skills and reach his highest potential," said researcher David Hovda, Ph.D., director of the UCLA Brain Injury Research Center and the study's senior author.
A concussion results from trauma to the brain. The intense impact of the injury jars the brain inside the skull, often producing a loss of consciousness and other symptoms, including headache, confusion, dizziness, lightheadedness, nausea/vomiting, and blurred vision.
The UCLA research suggests a child may not achieve the highest level of understanding and comprehension of new concepts during the recovery period following a concussion.
"As one grows up, the brain encounters what are called critical windows of opportunity," said Hovda. "If you want to learn a foreign language, the best time to learn is when you're very young and the brain has a lot of plasticity. After age 12, that window closes and it becomes much more difficult to learn a foreign language."
"For instance, if the child was learning how to play Chopin on the piano during the post-concussion recovery period, the child would not be able to concentrate and integrate this new information as well as before the concussion," said Hovda.
The researchers tested 48 three-week-old rats - equivalent to 5-7 years of age in humans - to determine if a moderate traumatic brain injury sustained early in life alters the capacity for developmental brain growth.
The control group consisted of 21 animals; one-half of the control group was placed in an enriched environment designed to fully stimulate the brain. The other half was placed in standard vivarium housing.
Compared to the standard housing group, the rats living in the more stimulating environment all developed a 10 percent thicker cerebral cortex and grew to be smarter by 50 percent. The animals were rated on a Morris Water Maze, which measures cognitive spatial learning.
The 27-animal test group sustained concussions and was also divided into two groups; one-half placed in standard vivarium housing and one-half placed in an enriched environment.
The researchers found no differences in cortex thickness or cognitive function between concussed and non-concussed animals living in standard housing. However, after rearing in an enriched environment, the non-concussed animals developed a thicker cortex and became 50 percent smarter, while the concussed animals showed the same cortex thickness and intelligence as the standard-housed (unenriched) animals.
The only animals which grew to be 50 percent smarter - and developed the thickest cortex of the four groups - were the animals that did not receive a concussion and were placed in an enriched, stimulating environment.
"Concussion in very young animals does not result in significant behavioral deficits or damage to the cortex," said Hovda. "But it does appear to reduce the capacity of the brain to respond appropriately and take advantage of an enriching environmental experience."
Hovda said that following a concussion, children would not show apparent clinical deficits. They would still meet their developmental milestones - be able to walk, talk and see well. They'd also progress well, but their capacity to achieve their highest level may be compromised by the brain injury.
"If the child then had a repeated injury, it would expand the amount of time that the critical window of opportunity would be lost," said Hovda. "Even though that child might look like he was progressing well in school."
In addition to Hovda, the following UCLA researchers contributed to the study: Dr. Igor Fineman, Dr. Christopher C. Giza, Brian V. Nahed and Stefan M. Lee, Ph.D. They all work for the UCLA Brain Injury Research Center in the Division of Neurosurgery, UCLA School of Medicine.
Support for the study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Lind Lawrence Foundation.
For more information on the UCLA Brain Injury Research Center, log on to (http://www.neurosurgery.medsch.edu).
A complete copy of the research paper and interviews with the researchers are available upon request.
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