New Advances In Concussion Management By Accident
Not all medical breakthroughs are discovered on purpose. Just ask Stanford intern Theo Roth, who discovered how a concussion affects the brain in real time by messing up brain surgery on mice. In 2010 Roth was supposed to be removing a portion of the skull in mice, to see how the brain reacts to meningitis, but repeatedly kept giving the mice concussions instead. The intern was working with high powered microscopes and realized that they could observe in real time what happens when a concussion is sustained. With the ability to observe the initial reaction of the brain during a concussion the research found that if an antioxidant is applied immediately after the trauma the damage to the brain is significantly reduced.
The full research article can be viewed in the Journal Nature.