Conversations That Matter: Why woodpeckers don't get concussed
Credit to Author: Massey Padgham| Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2020 15:00:13 +0000
A woodpecker slams its head into a hard object about 80 million times in its lifetime and doesn’t suffer from traumatic brain injury.
Why? That was the question that was posed at a U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency event a number of years ago. Those in attendance laughed at the question. Everyone but Dr. David Smith, an internist who started to look into why woodpeckers can endure repeated jarring of their skulls and brains.
He learned the mechanisms in their skull, shoulders and the way in which the woodpecker’s tongue is attached to the skull and the omohyoid muscle play an important role. The interaction between them trap blood and cranial fluid inside the skull preventing or reducing brain slosh.
Smith wondered if the same could be true for people, so he ran experiments on humans that demonstrate that pinching the omohyoid pinches the jugular and increases the volume of fluid in our skull, preventing brain slosh. That was part one of the non-traumatic equation.
Part a involves carbon dioxide, a gas that Smith says is vitally important in preventing and healing traumatic brain injury.
We invited Smith to join us for a Conversation That Matters about his research in reducing and healing traumatic brain injury.
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