If you had the chance to change your brain, would you? If you said yes, meditation might be the answer. Meditation involves sustained thinking aimed to relax or achieve religious or spiritual purposes. It’s a simple and ancient practice; paintings found in the Indus Valley from 5,000-3,500 BCE depict people reposing in meditative postures. Throughout its long history, meditation has been lauded for virtues like improved moods and decreased anxiety. But how does meditation produce these benefits aside from just making people more relaxed?

How can you change your brain?

It turns out that meditation actually changes your brain. This might sound a little strange at first, but many things you do can change your brain thanks to a concept called neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to change through experiences or repeated practice. When exposed to a stimuli, the brain can actually create new neurons and form new neural connections that change its structure. When you learn to play new instruments or memorize complicated dance moves, you’re restructuring your brain’s neural pathways.

Think of it this way: when you lift weights repeatedly, your muscles probably get bigger or more toned. They change. Meditation exercises the brain, and like lifting weights, it can produce desired changes.

Funding for research on alternative medicine and meditation surged in the past several years. With healthier budgets and burgeoning new technologies, researchers discovered new scientific connections between meditation and changes in the brain. Below are some summaries of their findings.

Meditation Changes Gray Matter

Massachusetts General Hospital documented that meditation causes changes in the brain’s gray matter. Researchers there measured differences in gray matter concentration in subjects’ brains before and after an eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Program using magnetic resonance (MR) images. After meditation, subjects displayed more concentration in the gray matter of different brain regions, including the left hippocampus. They also took before and after images of a control group that practiced no meditation and saw zero notable changes.

Time out. I have gray stuff in my brain?

Yup. Gray matter tissue surrounds the cerebrum. It’s also called the cerebral cortex, but was dubbed gray matter because of its dull tone. This is the part of your brain that wrinkles. The cerebral cortex is responsible for many functions including motor movements, sensory processing, language, and cognitive skills.

After meditation, gray matter in the subjects’ brains became more concentrated in these regions:

• The left hippocampus: The hippocampus is a vital component of the brain’s limbic system, the portion of the brain that handles emotions and memories. It also connects emotions and memories so you can form associations and experience a wave of happiness when recalling your favorite childhood memories. Meditation induced changes in only the left side of the hippocampus. Unfortunately, the function of the different sides eludes explanation. One study found that synapses in the left and right regions are asymmetrical with distinct structural differences, suggesting that they have separate but interrelated functions.
• The posterior cingulate cortex: Many agree that the posterior cingulate cortex plays a role in cognition, specifically attention direction and rewards systems. Brains at rest, brains planning for the future, and brains reflecting on the past show increased activity in this region. A Duke University study suggests this region might be what keeps you motivated when learning something challenging. Posterior cingulate cortex activity in monkeys increased when they made errors in a test and needed to learn something new to improve their performance.
• The temporo-parietal junction: The temporo-parietal junction is often associated with empathy. Studies have found activity in this region increases when subjects read stories about people who were accidentally or intentionally harmed.
• The cerebellum: A large brain region called the cerebellum helps you make coordinated movements and communicates with several other structures in the brain. It’s how you can run, walk, eat, and throw a  football without thinking of all of the tiny movements you need to perform to accomplish these seemingly simple tasks.
• The amygdala: The researchers also found decreased gray matter density in the amygdala, a region associated with anxiety and stress.

Meditation Reduces Anxiety

The Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center found that meditation reduces subjects’ anxiety ratings by as much as 39 percent. They studied 15 volunteers with normal stress levels, no diagnosed issues, and no meditation experience. The volunteers learned the proper way to practice mindful meditation and took just four 20-minute classes. Scientists noted changes in the brain areas associated with worrying and emotions during and after the meditation.

Scientists noticed increased activity in the areas noted below. While each perform many complex functions, their associations with emotions, guilt, and conflict control contributed to the subjects’ decreased anxiety ratings.

• The ventromedial prefrontal cortex: The ventromedial prefrontal cortex has been connected with decisionmaking and cognitive control as well as complex social interactions like emotional processing and guilt. Most people would be incensed after witnessing a poisoning attempt. Studies have shown that people with damage to their ventromedial prefrontal cortexes don’t find a moral problem as long as the potential poisoner failed to kill the victim. They view the transaction only as deep as the outcome.
• The anterior cingulate: The anterior cingulate activates during conflict. Recent research has found that it’s also active when we find something humorous. Researchers believe this points to its role in coping with situations. Your brain might not see the difference between trying to understand the punchline of a joke and trying to detect why your spouse could be mad at you.

Meditators Have Different Brains

Other studies from Massachusetts General Hospital reported that meditators’ brains differ structurally from non-meditators’ brains. Meditators have thicker regions for sensory processing and attention than non-meditators. Older people showed even more pronounced differences, suggesting that meditation might be able to reduce thinning of certain structures as the brain ages.

The study showed that you can change the structure of your brain, making certain areas thicker and stronger with constant practice. Why is that so special? Well, Albert Einstein might have owed some of his genius to thicker connective structures in his brain.

These regions indicated below were thicker in the meditators studied:

• The prefrontal cortex: The prefrontal cortex engages when you’re involved in complex and abstract thought, emotions, planning, and introspection. It’s basically your decision center, taking information provided by your senses and deciding what to do with it. It might also play a role in creativity. Scientists studied brain images of jazz artists to see what the brain does during the spontaneous performance of music. During improvisation, the scans revealed a flurry of activity in the medial prefrontal cortex. To make things more interesting, they noticed activity in the dorsol lateral prefrontal cortex decreased; this area of the brain manages inhibitions and detailed planning.
• The insula: The insula is a mysterious prune-sized brain tissue thought to be important in integrating thoughts, senses, and emotions. For example, when you smell something you find repulsive, it’s probably the insula that relays the distaste to your brain in reaction to the odor. It also lights up during arousal–when people feel pain, crave drugs, listen to jokes, and even make financial decisions.

What else can meditation do?

Other studies have suggested fascinating effects of meditation without pinning down the actual brain structures responsible. According to these compelling findings, meditation might…

Allow You to Expand Limited Brain Resources

Our brains have limited capacity for processing synchronous stimuli. For example, when presented with two visual targets in close proximity, you can’t detect the second. This is called attentional blink. See for yourself:

But some studies suggest meditation reduces attentional blink. Attentional blink happens because the two targets compete for your limited brain resources. Meditators allocate their resources across the targets more effectively and therefore can detect both.

Make Us Masters of Pain

Meditation might influence reaction to pain. Researchers pitted 12 thirty-year meditation veterans against 12 normal, yet meditation-less control subjects. The meditation veterans showed a 40-50 percent lower response in their brains when exposed to pain than those in the control group. After the 12 members of the control group practiced meditation for five months, their brains’ responses to pain decreased by 40-50 percent, as well.

Mind Over Matter

Mind over matter. Believe and achieve. Mantras like this stare us down from classroom posters and self help tomes. While the statements are inspiring, few people take them literally. But evidence that you can change your brain through meditation gives these words new life. From changing your gray matter concentration to thickening certain regions of your brain, the emerging studies on meditation are compelling–even for the most skeptical of potential practitioners.

You have the power to change your brain. How’s that for an empowering meditation mantra?

Resources

Primary

Mind, Mood & Memory: Meditation–the Relaxation Remedy: Research Suggests Meditation Can Help Ease Stress, Improve Health and Well-Being, and Even Boost Brain Activity

Townsend Letter: Transcendental Meditation Reduces the Brain’s Reaction to Pain

New Scientist: How Life Shapes the Brainscape: From Meditation to Diet, Life Experiences Profoundly Change the Structure and Connectivity of the Brain

Mind, Mood & Memory: The Neuroscience of Meditation: Spending Time Consciously Directing Awareness to Present-Moment Experience Can Change the Brain’s Activities and Structure

Mind, Mood & Memory: Eight Ways to Improve Your Focus–and Your Memory; These Suggestions For Boosting Concentration Can Help You Strengthen Your Ability to Absorb Information

NIH: Buddha’s Brain: Neuroplasticity and Meditation

PLos Biology: Mental Training Affects Distribution of Limited Brain Resources

NIH: Mindfulness Practice Leads to Increases in Regional Brain Gray Matter Density

Journal of Neuroscience: The Role of the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex in Abstract State-Based Inference During Decision Making in Humans

Additional

Psych Central: Meditation That Eases Anxiety? Brain Scans Show Us How

Harvard: Eight Weeks to a Better Brain

Reference and User Services Quarterly: Meditation and Health: an Annotated Bibliography

Brain Facts: Mapping the Brain

Brain Facts: The Cerebellum

Education Portal: Hippocampus: Definition, Function & Location

Science Daily: How is Our Left Brain Different From Our Right?

Medical Daily: Motivation Stems From Single Brain Region: The Posterior Cingulate Cortex Keeps You Going When Learning is Tough

Brain Facts: The Moral Brain

Brain Facts: Neuroeconomics: Money and the Brain

Brain Facts: No Laughing (Gray) Matter: Laughter, the Brain, and Evolution

Brain Facts: Unlocking Creativity in the Brain

Psychology Today: An Overview of Meditation: Its Origins and Traditions

Ashley Bell

Ashley Bell communicates about health and wellness every day as a non-profit Program Manager. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Economics from the College of William and Mary, and loves to investigate what changes in healthy policy and research might mean for the future. Contact Ashley at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Can Meditation Change Your Brain? appeared first on Law Street.

Mental illness and criminal law mix as well as oil and vinegar. Law desires reason and cause. The reason and cause of mental illness is often difficult to detect. While our scientific grasp on mental illness is growing, the evidence of how and why it might influence an individual’s behavior is often more nebulous than a legal professional might prefer, especially in the case of violent crime.

That’s what makes the insanity defense such a controversial topic.

Mental illnesses are real and often incapacitating, but how can you definitively prove they exist in courtroom arguments?

Below we’ll dig into why the brain is so mysterious, what this mystery means for the insanity defense, and what scientific steps we’re taking to de-mystify our own brains.

The Brain: Anatomy’s Rubik’s Cube

Our brain and its team of 100 billion neurons puppet our every move, thought, and action. It’s truly a wondrous biological mechanism, allowing us to solve a number of puzzles–except the puzzle that the brain itself presents. It’s one of anatomy’s cruelest jokes. Our body’s own mechanism for logic doesn’t quite understand itself. Yet.

After years of research and remarkable breakthroughs, many aspects of the brain and mind remain tauntingly elusive. This is not an insult to scientists, but more of a testament to the brain’s enormous complexity.

John Cleese’s parody video below captures the brain’s mystique.

Time out…the brain AND the mind?

Are the brain and the mind different? Don’t worry, I’m not opening a philosophical debate. But for the purpose of the following discussion, we need to view the brain and the mind as separate entities.

In discussing mental illness and criminal law, the difference between the brain and the mind comes down to the difference between psychology and physiology.

The physiology of the brain refers to those biological functions it performs. Neurons using electrical impulses to communicate with other cells is a biological function. Some illnesses, like psychosis, can be traced to physiological malfunctions that result from things like brain tumors.

Dr. Allan Reiss discusses the physiological aspects of mental illness in the video below, as well as his ambitions for pinpointing the specific diseases instead of symptoms.

Psychology, on the other hand, refers to the more nebulous mind. While scientists do believe the mind is influenced and even dependent on the physiological functions of the brain, it’s difficult to make a direct connection. Many individuals exhibit symptoms of behavioral disorders that can be linked only to the mind and have no known physiological causes. In these cases, psychological diagnoses usually rely on observations and questions about a person’s feelings, moods, actions, and behaviors.

This will be important later, when we’re talking about hard evidence in insanity pleas.

Communication Breakdown

The mind is associated with will power and “the self.” It’s hard to accept that complex mechanisms in our brains might drive the show instead of us.

The brain is unfathomably complex. It contains billions of neurons whose interactions determine your body’s functioning by communicating through a series of electrical signals. Everything we do relies on how neurons communicate with one another. Disruptions in this communication because of abnormal functioning of brain circuits may be an underlying cause of mental illness. If connections between certain messaging pathways in the brain are disrupted, the way it processes information might also be disrupted and abnormal perception, moods, or behaviors can result.

In summary, mental illness happens when the brain cannot effectively coordinate the billions of cells it controls.

Mental Illness and Crime

So mental illness results when the brain cannot effectively coordinate some of the billions of cells it controls. Unfortunately, figuring out exactly where the coordination faltered among the brain’s billions of cells and functions is like figuring out who lead the applause in a crowded stadium.

This lack of certainty creates a convoluted intersection for mental health and criminal law. The insanity defense exists to make sure no one is imprisoned who didn’t truly understand the consequences of their actions due to mental illness. If mental illness did impair their sense of consequence and right and wrong, they may be declared not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI). People found NGRI do not walk free–many are committed to mental institutions for at least as long as their criminal sentence would be.

For an insanity plea to hold weight, the defense must prove that the criminal’s mental condition directly influenced their actions at the time of the crime and inhibited their ability to appreciate that their actions were wrong.

Disorders with the most potent insanity defenses are those with physiological evidence that the condition caused an altered perception of reality or impaired ability to control behavior. For example, an X-ray clearly depicting a brain tumor that might have caused hallucinations is stronger evidence than a patchy history of emotional disturbances. If there is trauma, injury, tumors, or physical elements like epilepsy, the case will hold more weight than just a mere history of psychological episodes.

According to Richard McNally, PhD, a clinical psychologist at Harvard University:

“Certain disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and autism fit the biological model in a very clear-cut sense.”

If you have biological indicators from dissections and imaging scans, you have more evidence that connects a disorder with a behavior.

Which disorders have the necessary elements?

While we don’t know the absolute and irrefutable causes of many mental illnesses, we do have evidence that some are more rooted in biology than others.

Voluntary intoxication doesn’t cut it.  Neither do pedophilia or pyromania, which are considered strictly antisocial personality disorders and are linked to thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and not dysfunctions of the brain.

People with psychosis have a skewed sense of reality. They are plagued by delusions and hallucinations that can severely impact their behavior. People with severe depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia often suffer from psychosis. It has many possible causes rooted in biology including tumors, cysts, dementia, and stroke.

Those suffering from severe depression experience constant feelings of sadness or apathy. It affects how they feel, think, and react to many aspects of life. In some cases, like postpartum depression, victims can suffer from delusions and hallucinations. Chemical imbalances, changes in genes, and traumatic events are all possible causes.

Mania or bipolar disorder is associated with abnormally elevated moods that can lead to unpredictable behavior and impaired judgement. The severity of the disorder is determined by how fervent and incapacitating the abnormal moods are. Scientists haven’t discovered a single cause for bipolar disorder, but they’ve found compelling evidence that genetics and brain structure might play a role.

People with anxiety disorders suffer from anxiety that exceeds normal functional levels. They are unable to control it and it subsequently controls them. Post traumatic stress disorder is a type of anxiety disorder. While it’s triggered by an environmental trauma, some say genetics might play a major role in susceptibility.

Andrea Yates was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she murdered her children by drowning them. She was convicted at first, but her long, undeniable history of mental illness, attempted suicides, and extensive medical records led to a reversed decision that she was not guilty by reason of insanity.

Advances in Detection

There isn’t a test for detecting mental illness as finite as a blood test or an X-ray, but scientists are working on it. The idea is to prove that the mind and brain are one and the same and that all mental processes are brain processes. The brain is a biological organ so mental illness must have a testable, biological component and explanation. This would provide that solid link and evidence that forensic psychologists everywhere would cheer for.

Thomas R. Insel, MD, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, doesn’t think mental illnesses should be treated any differently from other chronic illnesses. He says,

“The only difference here is that the organ of interest is the brain instead of the heart or pancreas. But the same basic principles apply.”

Insel argues that EKGs and CT images allow us to explore the heart in ways unthinkable 100 years ago, and that similar breakthroughs could be coming down the pike for the brain. Advancements are already being made in neuroimaging that enable studies of brain structure and function. Positron emission tomography (PET), single-photon emission computer tomography (SPECT), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) get us as close as we can possibly get to peering into the brain. Using this imaging, scientists have been able to make possible connections between brain pathways and mental disorders. They’ve also uncovered the functioning of previously mysterious brain regions.

The video below shows how scientists are also making waves in understanding how brain circuits might lead to mental illness.

Solving the Rubik’s Cube

Every advancement in detecting biological clues for mental illness would provide more evidence and substantial links for criminal cases involving people who are mentally ill.

With every advancement we make in solving the brain’s mysteries, another piece of the billion-square Rubik’s cube clicks into place. Earlier, I called the brain one of anatomy’s cruelest jokes because it doesn’t quite understand itself. But just like a real Rubik’s cube, even seemingly unsolvable puzzles can be cracked. Just because we don’t understand all of the intricate workings of our brains now, doesn’t mean we won’t ever. If any entity in the world is able to figure out the human brain, it’s the wondrous human brain itself.

Resources

Primary

APA: The Roots of Mental Illness

NIH: Brain Basics

APA: Assessing the Evidence of a Link Between Mental Illness and Violent

 Additional

Psychology Today: The Insanity Defense

WebMD: The Brain and Mental Illness

ABA: Criminal Justice Section Standards: Mental Health

Find Law: Current Application of the Insanity Defense

BrainFacts: Understanding Mental Disorders as Circuit Disorders

Ashley Bell

Ashley Bell communicates about health and wellness every day as a non-profit Program Manager. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Economics from the College of William and Mary, and loves to investigate what changes in healthy policy and research might mean for the future. Contact Ashley at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post What Brain Science Tells Us About the Insanity Defense appeared first on Law Street.

With all the media hoopla surrounding Ray Rice’s domestic violence issues and Adrian Peterson’s child abuse controversy, the NFL diverted its attention from its previously spotlighted concussion policy. In fact, the NFL’s recent media attention to domestic violence issues threatens to expose its player health policy by subjecting it to increased scrutiny as a result of its players’ recent predicaments.

Well, the issue here isn’t domestic violence, but rather Roger Goodell’s non-partisan approach to controversial issues concerning player welfare, accentuated by the NFL’s re-emerging concussion policy. Perhaps Goodell going on this media blitz has taught him a football fundamental; keeping his eye on the ball. Read on to learn about what could become of the NFL’s newest scandal: concussion policies.

When did the NFL become conscious of the unconsciousness of its football players?

In 1994, the National Football League created a committee responsible for overseeing brain injuries to its players after a series of permanent and near-fatal neurological issues to former players. The NFL named Dr. Elliot Pellman, a doctor without any brain-injury experience, the head of its newly-formed Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee. Thirteen years later, Pellman stepped down after his highly criticized finding that returning to play after sustaining a concussion did “not involve significant risk of a second injury either in the same game or in the same season.“

Between 2008 and 2010, the bodies of twelve former professional American football players underwent post-mortem evaluations for CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), a degenerative brain-functioning disease, which contributes to suicide, apathy, memory loss, changes in behavior, and depression. The proteins developed in an NFL player’s brain are inherent to a chronic sufferer of Alzheimer’s or epilepsy. Within months the NFL faced legal action from players and responded by implementing a telephone hotline for players to call when forced to play contrary to medical opinion. Nevertheless, by 2012, after unsuccessfully trying to wiggle its way out of the media onslaught, the NFL finally admitted its role in neurological dysfunctions.

PBS Concussion Frontline: CTE occurs when repetitive head trauma begins to produce abnormal proteins in the brain known as “tau.” The tau proteins work to essentially form tangles around the brain’s blood vessels, interrupting normal functioning and eventually killing nerve cells themselves. Patients with less advanced forms of the disease can suffer from mood disorders, such as depression and bouts of rage, while those with more severe cases can experience confusion, memory loss and advanced dementia.

Richard Ellenbogen, a neurosurgeon and co-chairman of the NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee, characterized these issues this year by saying, “The big issue in concussions is when is it safe to return a player back to the sport, or back to exercising? And the fact of the matter is we really don’t know the correct answer.”

Recently, the NFL supported its players after acknowledging its fault and changing some rules by reaching a settlement requiring the NFL to fund medical exams, concussion-related research, and litigation expenses. However, recent progress was overshadowed when a study of 79 former players yielded that 76 players were diagnosed with CTE.

What changes did the NFL implement to mitigate the consequences of playing professional football?

In light of the head-trauma class-action lawsuits targeting the NFL’s policy, one wonders whether the NFL instituted safe precautionary measures. In 2012, 261 players were diagnosed with concussions in preseason and regular-season injuries. Just a year later, CNN reported a 13 percent drop in these injuries, totaling 228 concussions. This decrease was largely attributed to the 2013 change in on-field rules prohibiting runners and defenders from lowering their heads outside of the tackle box and leading with their helmets when tackling. Additionally, the NFL moved the kickoff yard marker from 25 to 35 yards, to help curb player injuries on kickoff returns.

According to PBS Frontline, the preseason and week one games combined produced 15 concussions. The positions most prone to these injury in the past were wide receivers and cornerbacks, with safeties snatching the number three position. Currently, the NFL heads into its fifth week with 22 concussions to date.

Due to the recent uptick in concussions in light of post-football life injuries, the NFL agreed to settle its pending concussion-centered lawsuits for $765 million to 21,000 former players. Although this may seem exorbitant, the NFL’s tax exemptions and billion dollar revenue schemes amount to a $20,000 a year payout for 30 years to each player. Considering about 30 percent of all current NFL players will suffer from dementia or CTE, this amount represents a minor setback, accounting for only .05 percent of the NFL’s annual revenue.

Should the NFL be doing more to prevent concussions?

Truth is, the problem is exacerbated by us, the fans. Too often we hope for big hits and inside play-action passes giving rise to the bone-crushing plays, which provoke these devastating brain injuries. Although the NFL reduces the impact of these injuries by having doctors perform sideline evaluations and requiring a player to miss at least one play after receiving medical attention, progress has been minimal.

Recent changes in technology provide easier and cheaper alternatives that can detect concussion symptoms. One alternative, such as brain sensors in players’ helmets, can ameliorate some of the sting of future injury because they scan the brain for concussion symptoms during the game. As of now, the NFL does not include this technology in players’  helmets. Instead, the NFL relies on an unaffiliated neuro-trauma consultant (UNTC) who stands on the 25-yard line and waits for an emergency call by the team’s physician. This seems paradoxical, considering the team employs the physician who decides whether to allow the UNTC to evaluate a player. Furthermore, there aren’t any guidelines as to when the physician makes that call, which poses questions regarding the NFL’s regulatory capacity. Who regulates these physicians with unfettered discretion making these calls? Why doesn’t the independent doctor have priority, when football games are a billion-dollar, competitive enterprise?

In 2013, Matt Forte, the Chicago Bears’ running back criticized the NFL’s proposed policy and rule changes by tweeting,

“Last time I checked, football was a contact sport. Calling bank now to set up my lowering boom fund.”

Fans may not want to watch a game diluted by yellow flags, commercials, and contact alternatives. On the one hand, players should be careful, but on the other, pro-football players pull in more than ten times the salary of the average citizen; they are compensated for sacrifices to their bodies. This isn’t to suggest the NFL has not protected its players, but it raises questions as to whether the NFL has taken every step to ensure safety as its priority. Nevertheless, even if sensors are added, or rules are changed, football is football, and fans love it.

Football is inherently a physical sport. People get hurt when they play physical sports. By regulating the hits and plays giving rise to concussions, one might say that the game’s integrity is compromised. The players’ safety is pitted against fans cheering (money, television, and notoriety), which contributes to the NFL’s dilemma, because both are equipoised. The problem of mitigating concussion injuries infiltrates deeper than simply installing sensors in players’ helmets because new technology goes hand in hand with new rules, which lead to more timeouts and less action. For example, all scoring plays are now reviewed. Before, fans felt excitement in hoping their quarterback would summon his offense and snap the ball to kick the extra point.

Although recent changes seem promising because they promote player welfare, one of the biggest problems requires educating the public. Public scrutiny is unforgiving, especially when fans are unaware of why new rules are enacted. In response to public scrutiny, the NFL now provides guidelines for dealing with concussion-related injuries and measures on protecting football players.

What are the latest developments on concussion policies?

Due to the way Goodell handled the domestic violence issue, his cohorts are under the gun to produce some positive changes, especially in light of recent data exposing the NFL’s past efforts in restructuring its concussion policy. Although the NFL was blindsided in some fashion by its players’ conduct, most of which are out of its control, the NFL restructured its policy by pulling players, minimizing competitive interests, and educating the public. Moreover, the NFL’s recent changes reflect its attitude of preserving its players’ welfare. The NFL itself issued a statement last August.

Player safety is the top priority for the NFL. Since its earliest days, the league has continuously taken steps to ensure that the game is played as fairly as possible without unnecessary risk to its participants, including making changes and enhancements to game safety rules.

In recent years, the NFL has modified its playing rules to sharply reduce contact to the head and neck of players. These modifications were made separate from, and in addition to, the league’s longstanding prohibitions against helmet to helmet contact.

Conclusion 

By confronting the issue honestly, settling lawsuits, and changing rules, the NFL has progressed. But at what cost? As the leading example of football everywhere, Goodell will likely return to initiating swift rule changes. In 2007, Goodell’s policy and partial reaction to Austin Collie’s concussion was:

“Medical decisions will continue to override any competitive decisions.”

Recently, the NFL published its Return to Play Policy for concussions and the guidelines for players returning from concussions. After years of debate, it seems Goodell is poised to confront the reality that NFL play permanently injures professional players.

Although domestic violence eclipsed the concussion issue recently, teams scrambled to get in touch with their fans, implementing strategies in an effort to save the organization’s reputation. Progress was made, but the underlying health issue remains. Niles Paul reminded the public of this Thursday night, when he crashed into the ground, motionless. Although the team doctor removed him from the game and issued mandatory time off, the rowdy bar-crowd screams overshadowed his injury, clearly representing the NFL’s dilemma.

Resources

PBS: 76 of 79 Deceased NFL Players Found to Have Brain Disease

MMQB: A Tie’s a Win for the NFL

ESPN: Concussion Case Good for Ex-Cowboys

CNN: NFL Concussions Fast Facts

USA Today: NFL’s Concussion Carousel in Full Motion Week 1

PBS: League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis

ESPN: Seaus to Opt Out of Concussion Deal

Bleacher Report: Why the NFL’s Concussion Policy is Failing

Evangelos Siozios

Evangelos Siozios is a student at New York Law School focusing on family law and real estate transactions. He is a 2012 Baruch Honors College Graduate whose interests include writing, exercising, and solving TV mysteries. Contact Evangelos at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Fans vs. Player Safety: The NFL’s Concussion Dilemma appeared first on Law Street.