Cognitive Labs

Aging or other causes of cognitive decline can threaten reaction time and attentiveness - impacting the ability to drive successfully, or fly a plane for that matter. Handling the differing constituencies in this scenario presents a challenge for policymakers. However, as time passes, the scope of the issue will continue to expand. Stanford researchers have examined the issue of pilot performance as it relates to nicotine consumption and have found a positive correlation, though we're not suggesting that drivers should necessarily smoke to enhance alertness.

Labels: adrc, boston, driving, stanford, VA, yesavage

One of the repercussions of the Iraq War is the surging number of head injuries, and the attempts to treat them. We reported on this in 2004, with coverage of the Chinook helicopter downed near Fallujah.

Here's another story on the topic, as the problem continues to expand. Up to 25% of the thousands of soldiers who suffer from head injuries (which do not show up in the scroll of daily fatalities) end up in California for treatment.

What is it like to have such an injury?

The writer Gene Wolfe examines the phenomenon in the person of the Spartan soldier Latro, who, after being wounded in the head in battle, wanders the Near East, ending up in the mysterious land of Egypt in Wolfe's Homeric Soldier trilogy. An unreliable narrator, Latro has no memory of the past, like many soldiers wounded in Mesopotamia today, every day is a new beginning. Perception and dialog with people and gods alike characterize the story, where nothing is as it seems.

Labels: chinook, fallujah, lew, soldierofthe mist, VA, wolfe