Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Yes, absolutely. Trying to determine why women concuss more easily and why post-concussion syndrome lasts longer in women are questions that we are grappling with. In fact, last year we had a full-day symposium on concussion in women and girls. There is now a worldwide movement c

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  My take on it is that the forces on the brain now, in certain sports, are much greater than they were. When I played hockey, I was an average-size player. Now, I'm a shrimp in comparison with the current crop of hockey players. The forces that they generate are much greater bec

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Yes.

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Absolutely. It really makes sense to me that we document carefully all the concussions that are occurring in the country, especially in sports and recreation. We can do that. We have the organizational ability to do it. We have CIHI, ICES, PHAC. We have all of those great opportu

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  You know, those are all great questions, and we can't answer any of them accurately with our small sample. We said before that we need about 200 brains in order to answer those questions. There are some big gaps in our knowledge. For example, we just received the first woman's br

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  I think what Dr. Marshall just said is very important. I would like the House of Commons committee on health to put some teeth into what has been done to date. For example, I feel very strongly that every province should enact concussion laws, because that's one way to be sure we

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  That's a great question, a tough question. I will try to answer it. By the way, I interacted with Pat Bishop for a long time. There is no doubt that he was a great Canadian researcher on head injuries. With respect to your question about tau and the fact that we can see it at

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Yes, very definitely. The diagnosis of CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, has definite criteria. For example, you have to see deposits of this abnormal protein called phosphorylated tau. It's quite easy to identify that protein because it stains a dark brown if the brain is p

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Yes. That's a very good question, because there is a real connection between all of the neurodegenerative disorders, and patients may end up having more than one. For example, in the brains we have examined of athletes who have had multiple concussions, we have found other condit

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Thank you.

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Thank you, Mr. Fonseca. I'd like to thank the committee for inviting me to speak. I'm very pleased, in fact, that this committee of Parliament is putting so much energy into the field of concussion. I've been focusing on this field in my practice and research for the past 20 y