Brainiacs 1

Brainiacs
Professor Rothwell
UWRT 1102
10 April 201
Annotated Bibliography
"What Is CTE?" What Is CTE? Brain Injury Research Institute, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a degenerative disease of the brain. This
progressive disease is triggered by multiple concussions. CTE affects many people, specifically
athletes and members of the military. Even with our advanced technology today, doctors only
diagnose CTE by conducting an autopsy of the deceaseds brain. When doctors are doing an
autopsy, they look for deterioration of the brain and deposits of tau protein. While a person is
living with this disease, they may mistakenly be diagnosed with Alzheimers, dementia,
Parkinsons, etc. However, a UCLA study may have designed a way to diagnose live patients
with CTE. There is still a lot of research and studies that need to be conducted since there is so
much that is still unknown about CTE. I believe that this was a credible source seeing how it is
an organization dedicated to brain injury research.

McLeod, Chelsea, and Maria Ober. "Boston University Researchers Report First Named Cases of
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in Soccer and Rugby Union Players." FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 27, 2014 (n.d.): n. pag. Sports Legacy Institute, 27 Feb.
2014. Web.
This is a report that came out about a year ago. During that time, the first cases of Chronic
Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) were found in the brains of a soccer player and a former rugby

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player. The soccer player, Patrick Grange, had been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis (ALS) prior to his death. When conducting his autopsy, following his death, doctors
discovered that he has Stage 2 CTE. Doctors discovered that Barry Tizzy Taylor, the rugby
player, had Stage 4 CTE. Before reading this article, I did not know that there were stages of
CTE. Stage 1 is the mildest stage and Stage 4 is severe. There is a brain bank at Edith Nourse
Rogers Veterans Administration Hospital that currently holds about 200 brains that are used for
research. It is reported that 75% of these brains have CTE. To continue the study and for doctors
to learn more, around 600 athletes have agreed to donate their brain to the brain bank when they
pass. I believe that this is also a credible resource because it is an institute putting out this release
about findings from Boston University researchers.

McKee, Ann C., Robert C. Cantu, Christopher J. Nowinski, E. Tessa Hedley-Whyte, Brandon E.
Gavett, Andrew E. Budson, Veronica E. Santini, Hyo-Soon Lee, Caroline A. Kubilus, and
Robert A. Stern. "Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in Athletes: Progressive Tauopathy
following Repetitive Head Injury." Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental
Neurology. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2015.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2945234/
This is a website of medical research and journals conducted by professional doctors on Chronic
Traumatic Encephalopathy. This website goes into depth medically about the buildup of the Tau
protein that shows when one gets CTE. It touches on how this affects more than just football
players and boxers and what symptoms can occur as a result of the head injury. Demographics
and statistics are provided and a there is an outstanding section of the journal that talks about
CTE in football players and how they die earlier than boxers who are affected with head injuries.

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This site is credible because it provides an abundance of information and research conducted by
doctors with the sources that each doctor used in their study report.

"What Is CTE? CTE Center | Boston University." CTE Center RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr.
2015. http://www.bu.edu/cte/about/what-is-cte/
This is a website provided by Boston University that provides information on CTE. Boston
University has a CTE Center that does research on donated brains that may have CTE.
Boston University site gives the general definition of CTE and provides us with medical journal
articles of CTE studies done through 2009. They also give access to case studies they have done
on professional football players as well as other athletes that have died from CTE. This site is
credible because they have primary sources and information that they have researched and
studied and is directly relative to our topic of CTE in Football. On Boston Universitys site you
can join their team, donate money, and get education on CTE.

"What Is CTE?" Sports Legacy Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2015.
Sportslegacy.org is a website provided by the Sports Legacy Institute that provides education
on sport related issues like CTE, information on sports policies and research.
Sport Legacy Institute gives us the definition of CTE and briefly goes into depth about the
history of the disease. The term Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy has been referred to that
since research dating back to the 1960s and still is the preferred term for this disease. Before,
CTE was more prevalent and known to occur in boxing; hence drunk punch syndrome being
one of the nicknames for CTE. On the site you can find Frequently Asked Questions such as
How is CTE diagnosed? and What are symptoms of CTE? Also, they show athletes who

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have donated their brains to research as a result of their death. This source is credible because
they have the information is clear and defined, and they also have a page of sources and
publications that they have used to gather information. This website was credible as far as
providing information that is useful for our topic of CTE and comes from a sports related
website.