Many of us have heard the stories about former professional football players and how chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the neurodegenerative disease-which as of now can be diagnosed only after death-is associated with repetitive hits to the head. More recently, research from the Boston University CTE Center has shown that every 2.6 years of football play doubles a person's risk of developing CTE, regardless of whether they ever play professionally or not.
For parents struggling with the question of whether or not to let their children play football, CTE may seem like an abstract risk. But in talking with CTE expert Ann McKee-a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor and a BU School of Medicine presser of neurology and pathology, director of BU's CTE Center, and chief of the Neuropathology Service at the VA Boston Healthcare System-the disease becomes less abstract and more tangible, especially as she shows us human brains, including Aaron Hernandez's, that reveal CTE's telltale brown stain of toxic protein tangles called tau. What's most striking? These severe cases of CTE contain brain tissue changes that are clearly visible to the naked eye.
"I'm a huge football fan, I've been watching the games for decades… and I had no clue [the players] were getting brain trauma," McKee says.
"Beyond The Brink" is an occasional one-on-one interview series where Kat J. McAlpine, editor of BU's The Brink website, tackles big questions about the human experience with BU researchers.
