Battling concussions: Where's the trainer?

Defying expectations, cataract surgery in Indian children is endowing them with vision—and shedding light on how the brain learns to see.

Though it claims as many as 300,000 lives every year, meningitis is not widely regarded as a major health problem by many health organizations in comparison to more familiar diseases like tuberculosis. One family-run company in Oklahoma is working to tackle the disease by developing simpler tools like the Cryptococcal Antigen Lateral Flow Assay, or CrAg LFA, to diagnose fungal infections. Faster and more accurate than previous methods, and significantly less expensive, the test allows for earlier diagnosis and treatment.

To protect the heads of football players, it might be advisable to have them occasionally practice without head protection, according to a counterintuitive new study of a successful Division I football program.

After a young rugby player died in Northern Ireland, his family and a brain expert set about to establish concussion guidelines, looking in part to the United States.

A certain breed of sheep may carry a specific trait that could possibly treat Huntington’s disease. Early trials have shown that mice treated with the chemical compound found in sheep can reactivate motor function.

The Canadian federal government has identified bullying as a national problem. Roots of Empathy, based in Toronto, encourages empathy in elementary kids by having them interact with babies.

The typical surgery for hydrocephalus, a brain swelling disease, often leads to infection. Medical constraints in Uganda inspired a neurosurgeon to create a safer and more effective surgery which is now used in Uganda and the U.S.

Despite significant increases in funding and advances in biomedical research, the rates of new treatments and drugs for illnesses that reach the market every year have plummeted. A group called the Myelin Repair Foundation, along with several other foundations, uses an intensely goal-directed and collaborative method to tackle the bottleneck.

Disciplining schoolchildren has led many students down the “school-to-prison-pipeline” because teachers have focused on controlling students rather than instilling problem solving skills. Ross Greene has developed Collaborative Proactive Solutions (CPS), which is a method that trains staff at schools to develop relationships with disruptive kids and help them problem solve. With the CPS method in practice in 2012, Central School has reported fewer students sent to the principal’s office and no suspensions.

Research has shown the importance of infant-primary caregiver attachment for the future of the child's cognitive ability, emotional health, and parent relationship. Infant Mental Health Specialists and other practitioners have emphasized programs and techniques to improve this relationship, for example infant massage classes, and specifically tailored interventions.