• Question: Do you actually lose brain cells from being hit in the head?

    Asked by daleawh to Helen, Jenni, Mark, Martin, Stu on 23 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Helen O'Connor

      Helen O'Connor answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      I am not sure – although if you are able to post questions in the Brain Zone, I am sure a scientist in there would be able to help answer this.

      There is an old saying called “punch drunk” which refers to when boxers get knocked in the head so much they start to act like they are drunk. This can actually be pretty serious – and they can get dementia, their mental skills slow down, they have difficulty remembering things, get poor coordination, and speech problems (its the last two tihngs that can make them seem “drunk”).

      It’s called Dementia pugilistica http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dementia_pugilistica

    • Photo: Mark Burnley

      Mark Burnley answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      Neurons can be destroyed in this way, sure, but there are 100 billion of these, and they are “plastic”, meaning that a rewriting job is easily done so the loss will not result in any mental problems/deficits.

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