Combat veterans' brains reveal hidden damage from IED blasts
Thursday, January 15, 2015 - 04:04
in Health & Medicine
The brains of Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans who survived blasts from improvised explosive devices and died later of other causes show a honeycomb of broken and swollen nerve fibers in critical brain regions, including those that control executive function. The pattern is different from brain damage caused by car crashes, drug overdoses or collision sports, and may be the never-before-reported signature of 'shell shock' suffered by World War I soldiers.