Source: Armed with Science
The number of Improvised Explosive Device (IED) casualties has increased tremendously, especially for Route Clearance Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soldiers who are exposed to IED-associated blasts are often not aware of any resulting mild Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and return to duty without proper medical diagnosis and treatment.
The U.S. Army and Columbia University are collaborating on a project to develop a pre- and post-deployment functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) protocol that identifies a specific neural signature from blast-induced TBI in soldiers and provides vehicle intelligence. fMRI measures the changes in blood flow related to neural activity in the brain. Because fMRI’s are extremely sensitive to changes in the brain resulting from abnormal blood flow, fMRI research has been increasingly used for medical diagnosis of neurological diseases and as a guide treatment.
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