Show 1012: What to Do About a Ghost in Your Brain

Head injuries are all too common, affecting millions of Americans every year. They can result in brain injury if the brain gets jostled inside the skull. This can be a problem even if the incident did not result in a loss of consciousness (a “blackout”). Around 5,000 people daily experience a concussion as a result of head injury.

How Can You Tell If a Bump on the Head Caused Lasting Damage?

Sometimes it can be hard to assess the impact of such an accident, whether it was due to slipping on the ice or getting rear-ended in a car. The standard medical tools don’t always reveal the true extent and nature of a head injury. If people continue to have difficulties with balance or cognitive tasks long after such an event, conventional medical wisdom holds that they just have to learn to adapt to their deficits. But what if that dogma is mistaken? Is there anything that can be done to help a person overcome impairment due to brain injury many years later?

Dr. Clark Elliott tells about his amazing experience of recovering from a severe concussion from which he had sustained apparently permanent damage. Learn what approaches helped him overcome the severe impairment he had suffered for many years, and listen to the therapists who made such a difference in his life.

This Week’s Guests:

Clark Elliott, PhD, is professor of artificial intelligence at DePaul University in Chicago, IL. He is the author of The Ghost in My Brain: How a Concussion Stole My Life and How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Helped Me Get It Back. His website is clarkelliott.com.

Donalee Markus, PhD, is a specialist in neuro-cognitive restructuring who practices clinically applied neuroscience. She creates instruments that maximize intelligence and catalyze creativity using clinically applied neuroscience. Her website is designsforstrongminds.com

Deborah Zelinsky, OD, FNORA, FCOVD (Optometric Doctor, Fellow of the Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association, Fellow of the College of Visual Development), is a neuro-optometrist who specializes in bridging the gap between neuroscience research and eye care. To find a practitioner of neuro-optometry, consult the website: https://nora.cc

Other websites of interest: The Society for Neuroscience (sfn.org)

And the Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics (http://www.worldbrainmapping.org)