Tactical Operators have distinct changes in the roadways of their brain with repeated subconcussive exposure. [1,2]
These changes can be boiled down to two things:
- Highways where there shouldn’t be
- Rugged trails where there should be highways
The areas of these altered roadways are in the areas where we see the insidious effects of these exposures; short-term memory, impulsivity, disrupted sleep, impaired reaction times, and decreased processing speed.
The good news is that we know we can change roadways. [3,4]
But the challenge remains to identify the best way to do so in many of these areas, AND tactical operators are continuously exposed to subconcussive forces throughout their career, so a reactive intervention approach is not optimal.
I believe this means the best approach is proactive continuous roadway building in the regions we know are susceptible to “poor construction” by subconcussive exposures. Continuously stimulating and building up the roads where they should be.
This approach puts the focus on optimizing performance and maintaining readiness- allowing Teams to reap the benefits now and improve the individuals’ quality of life in the years to come.
I started Subconcussive Consult to provide a proactive approach for tactical operators to build up the roadways of their situational awareness systems. Building up the roadways of processing speed, reaction time, and precision of movement. It is my hope that these athletes can take these skills and redefine what’s possible for human performance under extreme and unpredictable conditions, while also setting themselves up for the highest quality of life well past retirement.
REFERENCES:
- Allen A Champagne, Nicole S Coverdale, Andrew Ross, Christopher Murray, Isabelle Vallee & Douglas J Cook (2021) Characterizing changes in network connectivity following chronic head trauma in special forces military personnel: a combined resting-fMRI and DTI study, Brain Injury, DOI: 10.1080/02699052.2021.1906951
- Robinson, M. E., Lindemer, E. R., Fonda, J. R., Milberg, W. P., McGlinchey, R. E., & Salat, D. H. (2015). Close‐range blast exposure is associated with altered functional connectivity in Veterans independent of concussion symptoms at time of exposure. Human brain mapping, 36(3), 911-922.
- Andrew James, G., Lu, Z. L., VanMeter, J. W., Sathian, K., Hu, X. P., & Butler, A. J. (2009). Changes in resting state effective connectivity in the motor network following rehabilitation of upper extremity poststroke paresis. Topics in stroke rehabilitation, 16(4), 270-281.
- De Giglio, L., Tona, F., De Luca, F., Petsas, N., Prosperini, L., Bianchi, V., … & Pantano, P. (2016). Multiple sclerosis: changes in thalamic resting-state functional connectivity induced by a home-based cognitive rehabilitation program. Radiology, 280(1), 202-211.