Understanding Traumatic Brain Injury: Current Research and Future Directions

This timely book reports recent progress in research on traumatic brain injury (TBI) by leading investigators encompassing translational and clinical studies. The text covers epidemiology, pathophysiology, brain imaging, cognition, behavioral sequelae, and clinical trials of innovative treatments, including new approaches to rehabilitation. The range of TBI mechanisms represented in this cutting-edge book includes closed head trauma and blast-related injury, and the spectrum of TBI severity. Chapters offer a developmental perspective, including the effects of TBI on cognitive development in children and outcome studies in adults. Contributors from various countries provide a global perspective on this worldwide health problem. The editors have synthesized the contents in a concluding chapter. Researchers and clinicians will find this volume to be an informative, authoritative reference for current TBI research.

Harvey S. Levin is Professor and Director of Research in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas. He also serves as Director of the Center of Excellence for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) at the Michael E. De Bakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Levin was previously a member of the Neurosurgery faculty at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, and at the University of Maryland. He received his Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Iowa, where he studied neuropsychology with Dr. Arthur L. Benton and completed his postdoctoral fellowship. His research is concerned with closed head trauma in civilians and blast-related injury in veterans.

David H. K. Shum is Dean of Research in the Health Group at Griffith University, Australia. Professor Shum has more than 20 years' experience studying the effects of brain injury on cognition and behavior in adults and children. He has contributed to the assessment and treatment of cognitive impairments in individuals with damage to various parts of the brain by developing assessment techniques based on state-of-the-art models of brain functioning. He has published over 120 scientific papers in journals including Neuropsychologia, Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, and Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, and has been awarded more than $5 million competitive funding by sources such as the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the National Health and Medical Research Council.

Raymond C. K. Chan is Professor of Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience at the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Deputy Director of the Key Laboratory of Mental Health. He holds an honorary professorship at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Hong Kong, and is the honorary research coordinator for the Institute of Mental Health, Hong Kong Castle Peak Hospital. He is Regional Representative for Asia for the International Neuropsychological Society. He has received funds from various funding agents and has published more than 180 scientific peer-reviewed articles and six book chapters dealing with schizophrenia research and traumatic brain injury. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Clinical Rehabilitation, Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, as well as four local professional journals.