Listening to music activates a network of brain regions associated with memory, motor functioning and emotional processing. Certain tunes can spark an individual to recall the lyrics of a song, even if they have not heard the song for several years. A certain song can help to recall a certain memory o time in your life in vivid detail. Music is found to enhance emotional and cognitive functioning, decrease the perception of pain and increase endurance during athletic endeavors. Music makes virtually everything more pleasurable from sitting in the dentist’s chair to waiting in line at the grocery store. Read more →

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.” Read more →

The February 1st edition of the New England Journal of Medicine reports that suffering a concussion in Iraq after a bomb attack was strongly associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Read more →