All Articles by Jared Tanner, MS
Mr. Tanner has an M.S. degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate in clinical psychology with an emphasis in neuropsychology. His interests are mainly neuroimaging and neuroanatomy. He spends his research time looking at the structure of gray and white matter in the brains of people with Parkinson's disease. With a focus on neuropsychology, he is also interested in how normal and abnormal brain structure relates to cognitive and behavioral functioning.
Persistent Vegetative States: Legal and Political Ramifications
One controversial area where the brain, politics, and law collide is in cases where people suffer severe brain damage and are in a persistent vegetative state (this is more accurately termed complete vegetative state). In this state, the higher cortical functions of the brain are essentially wiped out. The person's brain stem is often still intact so breathing, swallowing, eye-blink, and other basic functions still can occur. However, without the neocortex (cortex that is not brainstem), the person cannot really see, hear, speak, or think.
Traumatic Brain Injury: A Silent Epidemic
Approximately every 15 seconds, someone in America suffers a traumatic brain injury (TBI). There are about 1,500,000 new brain injuries each year. Most of these are mild concussions -- which can have lasting cognitive effects -- but many are much more severe. Approximately 50,000 Americans die each year as the result of brain injury; in fact it is the leading cause of death in Americans under the age of 45. There are three times as many deaths resulting from brain injuries each year than result from AIDS in the U.S. There are more TBIs each year than new cases of all types of cancer combined. Granted, cancer tends to be more lethal with roughly 500,000 deaths per year to 50,000 from TBI but TBIs are still very serious. TBIs have received relatively little attention, especially compared with the widespread campaigns raising awareness for diseases like breast cancer or HIV/AIDS. Some people have started calling TBIs a "silent epidemic."
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Comments
- david: I think you did an excellent j
- bikash12: I think you did an excellent j
- Veronica Pamoukaghlian, MA: Thank you for your insightful
- Richard Kensinger, MSW: I agree w/ Howard Gardner's pe
- Melbzi: Muso's and smoked pot.I q
- Melbzi: I am 36 and from Melbourne Aus
- CODER: When we get sick, really sick
- Rusti Hauge: I don't see any evidence to th
- david: Fantastic content, being in Pr
- Kevan Henson: Write to me.Kevan Henson
- Kevan Henson: Tbi's are the way of your daug
- Kevan Henson: Tbi's suck because now we are
