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“Exercise helps maintain brain connections and counters brain shrinkage from Parkinson's disease as well as from brain aging,” wrote Eric Ahlskog, a neurologist and author of The New Parkinson's Disease Treatment Book. More exercise is also being increasingly linked by researchers to faster stroke recoveries – and lower stroke risk. A systematic review of evidence published in November in the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA) examined 19 studies of aerobic training programmes for stroke survivors.

Tremors are characteristic of movement disorders like ET and PD, two progressive conditions that affect millions of people worldwide. Previous treatment options for reducing them in patients who have not responded to medical therapy include deep brain stimulation, a surgical procedure that involves implanting a small electrode in the brain connected to a pulse generator that is implanted in the chest like a pacemaker. A more recently-available option is magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) thalamotomy, an incisionless interventional radiology procedure.

Long-term treatment with gabapentin, a commonly prescribed drug for nerve pain, could help to restore upper limb function after a spinal cord injury, new research in mice suggests. Mice treated with gabapentin regained roughly 60 per cent of forelimb function in a skilled walking test, compared to restoration of approximately 30 per cent of forelimb function in mice that received a placebo. The drug blocks activity of a protein that has a key role in the growth process of axons, the long, slender extensions of nerve cell bodies that transmit messages.

Most severe TBIs are treated in intensive care units (ICUs), but in spite of proper and high- quality care, about one in three patients dies, researchers behind the study say. Their paper aims to use AI to tackle the challenge of accurately monitoring TBI patients in intensive care when they are unconscious. The Finnish researchers say: “In the ICU, many tens of variables are continuously monitored – such as intracranial pressure, mean arterial pressure and cerebral perfusion pressure – that indirectly give information regarding the condition of the patient. “However, only one variable, such as intracranial pressure, may yield hundreds of thousands of data points per day. Thus, it is impossible for the human brain to comprehend the resulting millions of daily collected data points from all monitored data.”

Over 250 delegates gathered at London’s Royal Society of Medicine, with improving the approach to the UK brain injury challenge high on the agenda. Many of the issues raised reflected the findings of the landmark 2018 paper by acquired brain injury (ABI) all party parliamentary group (APPG), Time for Change. Diane Playford, professor of neurological rehabilitation at the University of Warwick and consultant in rehabilitation medicine at South Warwickshire Foundation Trust, alongside Ines Kander, PhD student at Warwick University, highlighted the ongoing need to change the community rehabilitation system which is, at best “ineffective”, and at worst “unavailable”.

Swedish innovation the Mollii Suit is helping neuro- rehab patients with a range of conditions to regain lost functions and boost their quality of life, as Richard Welch explains here.

Iñigo Fernández de Piérola followed in his mother’s footsteps and studied psychology. Shortly after finishing his studies he joined his mother and a few other psychologists in opening a psychology clinic in a medium sized city in the north of Spain in the heart of wine country. During his time as a practicing psychologist he was working with individuals with deficits in cognitive functioning related to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, traumatic brain injury, neurodegenerative diseases, neurodevelopmental disorders and others.

Engineers at Columbia University have developed the Trunk-Support Trainer (TruST), which assists and trains people with SCIs to sit more stably by improving their trunk control, and thus gain an expanded “active sitting workspace” without falling over or using their hands to balance. Their study, published in Spinal Cord Series and Cases, is the first to measure and define the sitting workspace of patients with SCI based on their active trunk control. "We designed TruST for people with SCIs who are typically wheelchair users," says Sunil Agrawal, a professor of mechanical engineering and of rehabilitation and regenerative medicine. "We found that TruST not only prevents patients from falling, but also maximizes trunk movements beyond patients' postural control, or balance limits."

From 14 April, gambling using a credit card will be banned, following reviews of the industry by the government and the Gambling Commission. According research, 22 per cent of problem gamblers use credit cards. Brain injury charity Headway welcomed news of the ban, but called for more to be done to protect brain injury survivors. Last year Headway gave evidence to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Gambling Related Harm to explore the links between brain injury and gambling addiction. Behavioural effects of brain injury, such as dis-inhibition, impulsiveness and obsessive behaviour, and cognitive effects, including memory loss and impaired reasoning, can make brain injury survivors more vulnerable to the addictive nature of gambling.

The award, sponsored by Cygnet Health Care, aims to acknowledge, recognise and reward a short film that raises awareness of the benefits of neurorehabilitation following an Acquired Brain Injury. The film can focus on neurorehabilitation in hospital, and/or in the community, and/or in school, and/or in prison or in connection with sport. UKABIF is encouraging entries from individuals with a brain injury, their families or carers, students, the general public, care providers and voluntary organisations, as well the rehabilitation multidisciplinary team, doctors in primary and secondary care, case managers, personal injury lawyers and social care workers.