VIDEO:A new study shows shows the voices of loved ones telling the patient familiar stories stored in his long-term memory can help awaken the unconscious brain and speed recovery from... view more CHICAGO --- "Can he hear me?" family members are desperate to know when a loved one with a traumatic brain injury is in a coma. A new Northwestern Medicine and Hines VA Hospital study shows the voices of loved ones telling the patient familiar stories stored in his long-term memory can help awaken the unconscious brain and speed recovery from the coma. Coma patients who heard familiar stories repeated by family members four times a day for six weeks, via recordings played over headphones, recovered consciousness significantly faster and had an improved recovery compared to patients who did not hear the stories, reports the study. The paper was published in the journal Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair January 22. "We believe hearing those stories in parents' and siblings' voices exercises the circuits in the brain responsible for long-term memories," said lead author Theresa Pape. "That stimulation helped trigger the first glimmer of awareness." As a result, the coma patients can wake more easily, become more aware of their environment … Continue reading →

Researchers at the University of Virginia have learned that what happens to the body after sustaining a major spinal injury could actually help doctors treat some serious medical conditions. Researchers have singled out an immune system response that happens after someone sustains an injury to their central nervous system previously thought to be harmful. Doctors say the reaction could not only help them treat brain and spinal injuries but also treat conditions like ALS, Multiple Sclerosis, and Alzheimer's. "Because these diseases are chronic and the patients have them live really their whole life with the disability they get, if we can restore this function - really from the very beginning of the injury - then we can have a large impact on their quality of life, said one of the researchers, UVA medical student Jamie Walsh. This discovery is the result of collaboration between researchers in the U.S. and Germany and at UVA's Center for Brain Immunology. Major Discovery on Spinal Injury Reveals Unknown Immune Response: Finding Points to New Treatments for Trauma, Neurodegenerative Diseases CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Jan. 21, 2015 In a discovery that could dramatically affect the treatment of brain and spinal cord injuries, researchers have identified a previously … Continue reading →