60 Minutes Features Dr. Brian Edlow, PI of the Neuroimaging of Coma and Consciousness Lab

60 Minutes, the news magazine broadcast, recently did a segment on the mental health crisis of former special operations military officers. A father to a former Navy SEAL who lost his son to mental illness encouraged the Special operations Command (SOCOM) to fund research investigating potential brain damage to former special military officers. The SOCOM then found $4 million to fund a study to investigate the role of repeated exposure to blast overpressure in brain trauma, led by our very own Dr. Brian Edlow of the Neuroimaging of Coma and Consciousness Lab. Dr. Edlow's study found a significant association of blast exposure with abnormal cortical thickness in the left rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), which could lead to a broad range of symptoms like difficulty in decision-making, emotional regulation, and disinhibition. Other related brain areas, such as others higher-order prefrontal regions, showed potential significant harm from blast exposure, which will be investigated in a follow-up study.