Q: Is there any recent research that supports the idea of brain plasticity?

A: There have been a handful of studies over the last decade that can be considered to support the idea of brain plasticity, the brain’s ability reorganize in response to input, a very useful growth mechanism that can benefit traumatic brain injury (TBI) recovery. Here is one of the most recent areas of research:

A study from the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has shown through tests on the effects of blindness that the brain possesses more reorganization ability than originally assumed.

How does vision and brain plasticity mesh? The studies’ senior author Alvaro Pascual-Leone, the director of the Berenson-Allen Center, used blindfolded subjects to demonstrate how the area of the brain that controls vision quickly switches to touch when the use of the eyes are no longer available.

Pascual-Leone believes that this indicates an ability that was dormant while sight was intact. It’s not that our brain is creating new connections, according to the author, but that they already exist. In this study, the blindfolded participants were better at learning Braille than those without.

According to the Newswise article, “as predicted, the researchers found that the subjects who were blindfolded were superior at learning Braille than their non-blindfolded counterparts. Furthermore, the brain scans of the blindfolded subjects showed that the brain’s visual cortex had become extremely active in response to touch (in contrast to the initial scan in which there was little or no activity).”

We can all most likely recall times that we closed our eyes to better hear or taste something, and because of these automatic impulses, we have already experienced the brain’s ability to compensate with the other senses. Studies like this one bring our brain’s amazing potential into relief.

Those with brain injuries experience everything from a slightly impaired ability to recall things to a loss of all conscious awareness. It will be interesting to see how these discoveries can be applied to TBI patients and whether or not there is the potential to stimulate non responsive areas of the brain with these methods.

Top Three Things to Know for New Brain Injury Patients

The time following a brain injury can be confusing, overwhelming, and emotional. There are three things that new brain injury patients should be aware of to help them through this difficult time.

1. You Are Not Alone

Every year 1.4 million people in the United States seek medical care for traumatic brain injury. Survivors should be willing to ask for—and receive—help from family, friends, and other loved ones when needed. Support groups, resources, and the survivor’s medical team are all there to help the patient navigate the time following traumatic brain injury. If the patient is not able to advocate for himself or herself, caregivers should be willing to call on the medical team, support groups, and other resources for help.

2. There are Different Types of Treatment and Rehabilitation

Survivors should be aware that there are a variety of types of treatments and rehabilitation available, depending upon individual needs, as well as where they are in the recovery process. No two treatment and rehabilitation programs are the same. Instead, they are individualized based on the location and severity of the injury. The goal of treatment and rehabilitation is to restore as much function to the survivor as possible. The plan should be to focus on the particular issues the survivor faces, and to structure therapies accordingly.

3. Recovery Will Be a Challenge

There’s nothing easy about recovery, and the new brain injury patient should realize this. As a matter of fact, without the many “challenges” that go hand-in-hand with recovery, the brain can’t rewire itself. While recovery can be extremely frustrating—with the gains offset by steps backward—perseverance, patience, and celebrating all forward progress, no matter how small, can keep the survivor in a positive frame of mind.

According to ScienceDaily, brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation is one of the most common causes of death and long-term neurological damage among infants and children. One of the methods of resuscitation is to apply 100 percent oxygen in an effort to revive the deprived brain.

New studies are suggesting that this application may actually cause more damage than benefit to the resuscitated brain. Research done on mice where they were given 100 percent oxygen resulted in a disruption of myelination and motor coordination. Myelin is a fatty substance that insulates nerve cells and allows them to transmit electrical signals quickly. As myelin develops in children, their coordination improves.

Dr. Steven Kernie, an associate professor with UT Southwestern Medical Center, says he wanted to find out if the application of 100 percent oxygen would impair the recovery of damaged neurons after a brain injury. He found that this amount of oxygen exposure causes oxidative stress, though it can be reversed with the addition of an antioxidant. Dr. Kearnie plans to continue his research to determine the ideal amount of oxygen that will benefit recovery.

The use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, as mentioned in a previous post, isn’t the same thing in case you are wondering how the two compare. With this therapy, patients are given 100% oxygen, but in cycles. They are given periods of time with decreased a decreased oxygen percentage in order to reduce the chance of oxygen toxicity. We aren’t sure if there have been any detrimental affects at this time, but we will look further into the correlation between the two therapies.