Light therapy improves brain connectivity after head trauma, MRI study shows – Health Imaging

Light therapy can improve connectivity after a mild traumatic brain injury, especially in the initial weeks following head trauma, according to new MRI data.

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) arrived at this conclusion with the help of functional MRI technology. On imaging, the team observed improvements in connectivity in multiple regions of the brain in patients who underwent light therapy within the first few weeks of sustaining their injury.

The skull is quite transparent to near-infrared light, study co-lead author Rajiv Gupta, MD, PhD, from the department of radiology at MGH, said in a release. Once you put the helmet on, your whole brain is bathing in this light.

The group included 38 patients with a mild traumatic brain injurysome who underwent light therapy and some who did notin their analysis. Patients received functional MRI brain scans while in a resting state to assess 82 different brain regions during three different phases of recovery: within one week, at the two- to three-week mark and then again after three months.

Imaging during the first two (acute and subacute) recovery phases showed improved connectivity between seven brain region pairs in the participants who underwent light therapy in comparison to those who did not. Between the subacute and late subacute phases, this figure grew to 13, but it was observed in both groups of participants.

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Light therapy improves brain connectivity after head trauma, MRI study shows - Health Imaging