Pacific Northwest Brain Injury Conference 2011
I have been asked to circulate this latest event.
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Meditation Helps Brain Structure
I have learned that people who pray and meditate actually lower stress and brain function. I have yet to make meditation a daily part of my life, but recent studies may change my routine.
In a study that will appear in the January 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, Participant-reported reductions in stress were correlated with decreased grey-matter density in the amygdala, which is known to play an important role in anxiety and stress.
Previous studies found structural differences between the brains of experienced mediation practitioners and individuals with no history of meditation, observing thickening of the cerebral cortex in areas associated with attention and emotional integration. But those investigations could not document that those differences were actually produced by meditation.
Meditation group participants reported spending an average of 27 minutes each day practicing mindfulness exercises, and their responses to a mindfulness questionnaire indicated significant improvements compared with pre-participation responses.
So lets start changing our brains by meditating. If anyone can share a personal experience where meditation has noticeably changed stress or anxiety please let me know.
Why Older Drivers have Difficulty
It may surprise you to know that older driver's actually see more than younger drivers. And that is why they have difficulty driving.
It turns out that as the brain ages, the visual intake gets bigger. Older brains attempt to take in the background of all motion in their field of vision. This makes the brain's ability to focus on relevant movement, important when reacting to driving movements, more difficult.
In a healthy, young person, a brain region called the middle temporal visual area, or MT, actively suppresses often irrelevant background motion so that he or she can concentrate on t
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he more important motions of smaller objects in the foreground.
But this above average motion perception is not something to look forward to as we age. Because the brain is spending its limited resources constantly paying attention to the unimportant motions of background objects, it has a harder time noticing the motions of smaller objects.
Fellow blogger, Dr. Virginia Campbell, recently posted an interview the authors of "Sleights of Mind:
What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about Our Everyday Deceptions" by Stephen L. Macknik, Susana Martinez-Conde, Sandra Blakeslee. This book is the result of the authors' yearlong, world-wide exploration of magic and how its principles apply to our behavior. Magic tricks fool us because humans have hardwired processes of attention and awareness that are hackable—a good magician uses your mind's own intrinsic properties against you in a form of mental jujitsu.
You can read about the findings in the Journal of Neuroscience.
Brain Injury Association Update
The Brain Injury Association requested that I send this to my readers:
After analyzing the President’s proposed FY2012 budget, we are pleased to report that programs authorized by the TBI Act, including the HRSA Federal TBI Program and the CDC’s important TBI work have both been recommended to receive at least the same funding found in FY10 final and FY11 CR appropriations bills, $10 million for HRSA and just under $7 million for CDC.
The CDC collects data, links both military and civilian populations with TBI services, increases public awareness, and conducts public health research. The HRSA Federal TBI Program funds 18 states to improve systems coordination access to care for people with brain injury.
On another note, the budget recommends reducing the TBI Model Systems of Care Program from 16 centers to 14 centers. BIAA will address the issue with both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to ensure that Congress is aware of the importance of each center and encourage full funding for all 16 centers.
The TBI Model Systems is a collection of research centers located across the United States that conduct disability and rehabilitation research under grants administered by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.S. Department of Education. They are the only source of non-proprietary longitudinal data on what happens to people with brain injury. The TBI Model Systems are a key source of evidence-based medicine, and serve as a “proving ground” for future researchers.
Brain Injury Association Update
This is the latest from the Traumatic Brain Injury Association Legislative Update:
This week House Republicans previewed a spending measure that would cut $74 billion in non-security spending from President Obama’s 2011 budget request. In addition, appropriators are trying to find billions more in spending cuts, as leaders work to put together a bill that will meet conservative demands.
Programmatic funding information is not yet available, but BIAA will analyze the data when it is released next week. Currently, the summary information available does not point to any cuts for TBI programs and in order to avoild calling attention to the line item, we ask that grassroots take action next week only if it becomes necessary. BIAA will alert grassroots advocates if mobilization is needed.
In the Senate, Democratic leaders called the proposed House cuts “extreme” and warned that a series of stopgap funding measures may be needed in the weeks ahead to avert a government shutdown. As many of you know, the current continuing resolution (CR) is set to expire on March 4, 2011.
Look for a special edition of Policy Corner early next week that will include an analysis of the House programmatic FY11 funding and an analysis of the President’s 2012 budget that is expected to be released early in the week.
Cognitive Rehabilitation Update
On Monday, February 7, 2011, BIAA participated in a day-long public workshop involving the Institutes of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapy for Traumatic Brain Injury. The meeting included several speakers including the charge to the Committee by TRICARE Management Activities.
BIAA is optimistic that IOM will reinforce in this new study that cognitive rehabilitation is an effective and medically necessary intervention for service members with traumatic brain injury and therefore should be a covered benefit under the TRICARE program.
Brain Injury Awareness Day 2011
This year, brain injury awareness day on Capitol Hill will be held on Wednesday, March 16, 2011. As in years past, there will be an awareness fair, briefing and reception. The full schedule for the day is as follows:
10:00 am – 1:30 pm Brain Injury Awareness Fair,
First Floor Foyer of the Rayburn House Office Building
1:30 pm – 3:30 pm Briefing: Brain Injury Rehabilitation and Re-Entry: Lessons Learned and the Road Ahead
Location to be Determined
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm Reception Celebrating Brain Injury Awareness Month
First Floor Foyer of the Rayburn House Office Building
Yearly Neuropsychological Results
Too often insurance company lawyers try to prove that a person gets well after moderate and even severe traumatic brain injury. They do this as part of damage control in cases where a person sustains traumatic brain injury and complains of impairments years after the injury. You need to hire a traumatic brain injury lawyer when you are considering your case.
A new study reveals that changes in learning and processing speed during the first year of recovery are sensitive indicators when predicting long-term disability and degree of functional independence, though absolute performance at 1 year is also highly associated with functional outcome at 2 years post-injury.
The Study is published in The Clinical Neuropsychologist (Neuropsychology, Development and Cognition: Sec, Volume 25, Number 1, January 2011 , pp. 72-89(18)
