December 15, 2017
Congress Mandates New DoD Study Central to Understanding TBI
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the signature wound of today's conflicts, affecting more than 370,000 service members, and emerging evidence suggests troops may be exposed to hazards to the brain during training as well.
TBI can come from many causes: falls, vehicle accidents, bullets, shrapnel, etc. In recent years, researchers have begun to understand that the primary blast pressure wave from explosions can also damage the brain, although the specific mechanism of injury from blast pressure is poorly understood.
Most concerning, emerging evidence suggests that service members may be exposed to significant levels of blast overpressure when firing heavy weapons, such as recoilless rifles, even in training.
Recent Defense Department studies have found that blast exposure from firing heavy weapons in training, such as the Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle, is associated with short-term cognitive deficits.
Even when used within currently approved firing limits, DoD studies have demonstrated that some service members may experience short-term deficits in delayed verbal memory, visual-spatial memory, and executive function after firing heavy weapons.
Read the full commentary at Military.com.
More from CNAS
-
Reports
Defense / Indo-Pacific Security
U.S.-Japan-Philippines Trilateral CooperationExecutive Summary Growing challenges from the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) massive military modernization, rapid technological advancement, and coercive military activ...
By Lisa Curtis & Ryan Claffey
-
Video
Technology & National Security
How AI is Being Used During the War with IranPaul Scharre, executive vice president at the Center for a New American Security joins CNN to discuss the use of artificial intelligence in warfare....
By Paul Scharre
-
Podcast
Energy, Economics & Security / Technology & National Security
Who Will Make Money on AI? With Paul ScharrePaul Scharre joins Emily and Geoff to talk about how commercial markets for AI might evolve and how different market outcomes may mean different types of risks for U.S. nation...
By Emily Kilcrease, Geoffrey Gertz & Paul Scharre
-
Reports
Technology & National Security
Quantum's Industrial MomentQuantum technologies are approaching a critical inflection point. Over the next three to five years, quantum sensors and computers that have long remained confined to laborato...
By Constanza M. Vidal Bustamante & Dr. John Burke
