Brainiacs 1

Brainiacs
Professor Rothwell
UWRT 1102
7 April 2015
Dont Wait for the Autopsy: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy
Preface
For the revision of this project, our group decided to work on the project individually and
each submit our own revisions. Everything highlighted are areas where I have made a revision.
In the Introduction section, I added why football seems to be the most prevalent for this disease
(since it was not clearly stated) and moved a comment from another section of the paper to this
section about why CTE is such a problem. I added According to in a few areas throughout
this paper to make the information more credible and not simply just using in-text citations at the
end of a sentence. For the Background section, I changed the subtitle of the section to give a little
bit more information about what that section will be about. I moved a paragraph from another
section to the beginning of the background. This paragraph was not cited at all before and had
some false information in it, which I went back and changed and cited the information. Other
areas of the background section were not cited and I went back through and cited those, as well. I
added in a small paragraph toward the end of this section. I felt as though this information was
important to the paper, so I included it. I worked toward a talking header for the method
section to describe what exactly the section would be about. In this section, I did not make many
changes, but I did add a couple of sentences that I wanted in the paper originally, but were left
out. These sentences just go slightly more in-depth with what our interviews would look like. In
the results section, I also worked toward a talking header to help describe what that section
would be about. I added in a few sentences that I would have liked to see in the originally paper;

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these sentences just describe in more depth about our results and findings from this project. For
the recommendation section, I changed the recommendations from saying should have because
these are recommendations for next time and it did sound really weird having all of the
recommendations starting with should have. I added two citations to the Works Cited page
since these two were not previously added. Last, but not least, all throughout the paper I made
small spelling and grammatical changes to words and phrases, which are also highlighted.
I believe that this revision is more credible than the last because there were areas where
phrases, sentences, and sections were not properly cited, if cited at all. I also moved a few
sentences and paragraphs around to make the paper flow better and for the paper to be clearer
and make more sense. I also value this paper rather than the original copy because I was able to
add some things that I deemed as important or supportive to the paper that had previously been
left out. Overall, just by making a few changes throughout the paper, I feel as though it is
definitely more credible and is a cleaner paper.
Introduction
Bringing awareness to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE, is the
main objective of this feasibility project. CTE is a progressive, degenerative disease that is
rapidly emerging and can affect many different people. It is caused by severe or repeated head
trauma, such as concussions. Encountering such head trauma leads to the development of tau
protein in the brain. Athletes (mainly football players, soccer players, hockey players, and
boxers) as well as those who are in the military are more at risk of developing CTE, rather than
the common person, although cases have been identified in a battered wife, an epileptic, two
mentally challenged individuals with head-banging behavior, and an Australian circus performer
who was also involved in what the medical report authors referred to as dwarf-throwing (Sports

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Legacy Institute). However, CTE seems to be most prevalent in professional football players
more than any of the other groups previously mentioned. CTE is a problem because sports are so
popular in the American culture today and athletes do make up a big
percentage of the American population. Surprisingly, many people,
even athletes, do not know of CTE, which is a major issue that we
would like to fix. This is not necessarily because a professional
The top row of pictures include a
normal brain, one somewhat
affected by CTE, and a very
degenerative brain caused by CTE.
The second row of pictures are
zoomed in photos of Tau protein.

football player is being hit by bigger men, because the head trauma
can come before the player reaches the NFL level. It seems to be most
prevalent among football players because football is a collision sport
and players can receive a thousand subconcussive hits in just a single

season (Boston University). However, most signs of the disease do not start appearing until postretirement. According to research conducted by Boston University, these changes in the brain
can begin months, years, or even decades after the last brain trauma or end of active athletic
involvement (Boston University). Symptoms of this
disease include: depression, behavioral changes, dementia,
impaired judgement, and difficulty with coordination and
balance. Unfortunately, no one knows for sure if one is
suffering from CTE until a post-mortem autopsy has been

Another picture of Tau protein

conducted.
Head Injury and CTE Background
In Lincolnton, North Carolina, at a middle school football game, there was a football
player named Will McLeod. According to WSOC TV, Will suffered a hard hit during the game.
He reportedly got up from the hit, came to the sidelines, and collapsed. He then died the next day

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of head trauma. Lincoln County Schools did come out and say that the equipment that Will was
wearing was refurbished (Medical Examiner). This possibly could be a contributing factor to
Wills death.
The disease can leave people feeling depressed and wanting their old self back, which
can cause people to commit suicide. According to Petchesky, former NFL Pittsburgh Steelers
center, Michael Webster, was said to have been diagnosed with CTE when a forensic
neuropathologist, Bennet Omalu,
examined tissue from Websters brain,
along with eight other deceased NFL
players, and found the build-up of tau
protein (Petchesky, 2013). Their brains
showed the kind of brain damage very
similar to that of Alzheimers disease or

Timeline of serious concussion in the NFL.

Suicides of NFL athletes (related to CTE) are
also listed on this timeline.

dementia. The NFL ignored Omalus findings until Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris
Henry was diagnosed with CTE after his death at age 26 in 2009 (Petchesky, 2013). The players
ailments were due to wear and tear that had sustained over their athletic career.
Following this report, a report in 2010 came out and acknowledged the first collegiate
athlete to be diagnosed with CTE. Owen Thomas, who played for Pennsylvania State University,
was not once diagnosed with a concussion throughout his lifetime nor did he ever experience any
trauma-like symptoms. This worried scientists and researchers about the possibility of
subconcussive hits causing this disease (Ezell. 2013).
A report came out about a year ago, discussing how scientists are currently working on
neuro-technology that would allow doctors to diagnose the patient with CTE while the patient is

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still living (Boston University). There is a current brain bank where many athletes who think
they might be suffering from CTE can donate their brain for studies and research when the
athlete passes. There is quite a lot of research being done currently, and thanks to medical and
sport websites for updating the general public on any news or new findings. There is a research
team at Boston University that is designated to finding out more about CTE and how it can be
reduced and cured.
Method of Research and Method of Solving the Problem
Through this feasibility project, interviews will be conducted with not only collegiate
football players, but also coaches and athletic trainers, as well. Although there are some strict
rules about athletes having to go through a rehabilitation program and
perform a lot of tests to prove that the athlete is okay and will be
able to play after a definite or suspected injury, that does not
fully stop coaches from allowing their athletes to play too soon after
suffering from an injury. An important question to ask coaches is how many times have you let
an athlete play with a known head injury? Questions that the athletic trainers may be asked
include: In the past two years of UNC Charlottes football program, how many concussions
have the athletes suffered? and What is a normal amount of concussions suffered during a
regular collegiate football season?
The main goal of the feasibility project is to raise
awareness to not only athletes, but their families as well. We
plan on doing this by creating social media pages (such as
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) to update others with current

Picture advocating for more

research on CTE, such as creating
new technology to discover the
disease in live patients and/or
discovering ways to help prevent it.

news and getting people to comment and give feedback on the CTE issue. Hopefully, by getting

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people to respond to this topic, we can get them to share the information on their personal pages
or organizational outlets and spread the word so more people can learn and help give ideas,
thoughts, and spread awareness.
Results of Efforts and Research
Unfortunately, our methods of
spreading awareness did not work on a
large scale. We did spread awareness to
some friends and family but in the grand
scheme of things, we did not make a big
impact. If we had created the Facebook
page a while ago, had more people like it
and got them to interact more than they did,

Picture of the Facebook page our group created, which

shows a few posts we made, some people who like
our page, and how many people our posts reached.

we may have had some better results because we cannot guarantee that just because they liked
our page that they learned anything from our page. Also, we did not use other social media
outlets, such as Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr as much as we could have. We did not search
social media for groups or pages that may have already been created regarding the issue. If we
searched these, maybe we could have joined a group or learned more information from others.
Making posts about CTE specifically was difficult since most existing flyers and posters were
designed for Brain Injury Awareness alone. We emailed the head athletic trainer for the football
team, here at UNC Charlotte, as well as trying to get in touch with a football player. We did not
receive answers to our questions for the interviews. Both failed to respond to our questions.
Lastly, it became hard to carry on the awareness being that March was Brain Injury Awareness
month and we didnt know or start publicizing about the issue until the last week of March.

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Evaluation
One accomplishment made through this
project was spreading awareness of Chronic
Traumatic Encephalopathy via social media. On
Facebook, a page was created to help spread
awareness. Through the page, we posted various
information that our group thought was important
Another image of our Facebook page.

for others to know. Some of the items posted include:

pictures of the brain to show was CTE looks like, common symptoms of CTE, links to websites
where more information can be found on CTE, a link where people can purchase T-shirts to help
raise money for research and help spread awareness, etc. There was an open invitation for
anyone who follows the Facebook page to post on the page, whether it is information that they
have found or if they have questions that they would like to be answered. With the Facebook
page, overall, our group was not able to reach many people in order to spread information.
Although we only had about 33 likes on our Facebook page, according to Facebooks
technology, the posts that we made on the page were able to reach 140 people, which is a good
amount for only having the page launched for about a week.
If we had used other sources of social media more, like we did with Facebook, we would
have reached a greater audience because it is known that a lot of students are not as active on
Facebook anymore as they are other social media sites, such as Twitter and Instagram. We
believe this played a factor in our low results.

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Conclusion
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a big problem affecting many athletes. While
current research is still being conducted on the disease itself and ways to prevent it, it is the
common persons job to help spread information about the issue. It is critical to raise awareness
for this issue, since it is becoming a pressing problem among athletes.
Our group tried to help spread awareness of the brain disease, Chronic Traumatic
Encephalopathy. Although we did try, our group could have tried harder. There were areas that
we could have improved on, such as posting more on other social media outlets, we could have
posted flyers around the school that had information on CTE and/ or letting others know of our
social media pages, where CTE information can be found. Also, we could have held an event
where we could talk to people and inform them about the issue. Overall, our group was not able
to reach as many people as we would have liked in order to spread awareness.
Recommendations
The following is a list of our groups recommendations:
1. Create the Facebook page earlier on in the project to have a greater outcome in the
number of people who like the page
2. Have more interactive activities or posts for those who like the Facebook page, to do.
This way they could be more involved.
3. Use other social media outlets such as Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr more often to
spread awareness.
4. Post flyers around campus. Both informational flyers and flyers letting others know of
our social media pages.

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5. Try to set up a PILOT event or some other type of informational event on campus
inviting fellow students to come and listen to a speech on Chronic Traumatic
Encephalopathy. If this was conducted, athletes and those who like sports would be our
main target of interest.
The above list of recommendations of things that our group could have done differently are ways
that we could have improved with spreading awareness, because we believe that we did not
achieve as much as we could and probably could have done more, had we tried harder or given
more time.
Reasoning
The many problems and claims of CTE include the fact that:

Athletes represent a significant part of our population whether professional,

college level, or amateur.

With most sports comes the possibility of getting a concussion, and multiple ones
at that.

Coaches or family allowing their athletes to play despite their head injuries.

CTE cannot be detected until post mortem surgery.

Counterarguments:

Anyone can get CTE as long as they suffer tremendous head trauma.

It is possible in an athletes career that they will not ever get a concussion or
suffer head trauma.

Even though CTE itself cannot be detected with any tests, symptoms of CTE can
be detected by behavioral changes.

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Works Cited

"Can Science See Inside An NFL Player's Skull Before It's Too Late?" Regressing. Web. 7 Apr.
2015.
"Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy." What Is Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy? 2012. Web.
7 Apr. 2015.
Ezell, Lauren. "Timeline: The NFL's Concussion Crisis." Frontline. PBS, 8 Oct. 2013. Web. 27
Apr. 2015.
"Medical Examiner: 13-Year-Old Lincoln County Football Player..." Medical Examiner: 13Year-Old Lincoln County Football Player... WSOC TV, 15 Oct. 2007. Web. 25 Apr. 2015.
McKee, Ann C., Robert C. Cantu, Christopher J. Nowinski, E. Tessa Hedley-Whyte, Brandon E.
Gavett, Andrew E. Budson, Veronica E. Santini, Hyo-Soon Lee, Caroline A. Kubilus, and
Robert A. Stern. "Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in Athletes: Progressive Tauopathy
following Repetitive Head Injury." Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental
Neurology. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2015.
"NFL Football Concussions, NFL Head Injuries." Hagen Law. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
Petchesky, Barry. "A Timeline Of Concussion Science And NFL Denial." Deadspin. Deadspin,
13 Apr. 2013. Web. 25 Apr. 2015.
"Pics For Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy." Pics For Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.
N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2015.
"What Is CTE? CTE Center | Boston University." CTE Center RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr.
2015.
"What Is CTE?" Sports Legacy Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2015.