What are the arrangements in a brain that a hit to the head may result in functional disruptions? How can the brain be modeled to prospect the effects of hits and better therapies? Two important points in exploring answers about the brain: How does the brain organize information, and how is information transported across the brain? If information organization or transportation is interrupted, in what ways might social and occupational activities wane?
There is a new [July 29, 2025] report by ABC News, Manhattan shooting suspect claimed to have CTE, mentioned NFL in note: ‘Study my brain’, stating that, “CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is a brain disease linked to repeated hits to the head, often seen in military veterans and athletes including football players, hockey players and boxers. CTE can’t be diagnosed in a living person with certainty, but doctors may suspect it based on symptoms and history of head trauma. Symptoms include memory loss, mood changes, confusion, and trouble thinking clearly.”
Theoretical neuroscience of CTE
What is memory? Simply, if a memory is lost, does it mean that the configuration for that memory, in the brain, is lost, or does it mean the transport to get to the location of the memory is lost? What is mood? What are mood changes? What is confusion? What is trouble thinking clearly?
Making conceptual progress in brain science would involve exploring empirical evidence for answers. What is the formation for information storage? What is the formation for transport? For example, in neurotechnology, it is possible to access certain information from the cerebral cortex — with electrodes — through electrical signals. This means that the question of configuration or transport is correlated with electrical signals.
Also, with psychiatric medications, chemical signals can be induced or inhibited, with effects on mood, thinking, and so forth. While neurons — in clusters — host [conceptually] sets of electrical and chemical signals, it can be theorized, with evidence, that electrical and chemical signals are the basis of information organization and transportation in the brain. While contributions are possible from gene expressions, glia, and so forth, the basis of the mind — for mood, thinking, and so forth — are electrical and chemical signals, conceptually.
There is a new [July 29, 2025] story in The New York Times, Former Football Players With CTE. Have Turned to Violence, stating that, “He would not be the first former football player suffering from CTE to turn to violence or to die by suicide. Andre Waters, Dave Duerson, Junior Seau, and other former football players have killed themselves with guns, and Duerson and Seau appeared to deliberately shoot themselves in the chest so that their brains could be studied. Mr. Duerson, like Mr. Tamura, left a note asking that his brain be studied.”
“In rare cases, former athletes turned guns on others. Aaron Hernandez, the former New England Patriots star tight end who was found guilty of shooting and killing an acquaintance, later killed himself in prison. In 2017, Mr. Hernandez was diagnosed with a severe form of CTE. In 2021, Phillip Adams, a former N.F.L. cornerback who had returned to his hometown, Rock Hill, S.C., shot and killed five people and died by suicide. Mr. Adams had struggled to find work after his professional career fizzled and had been displaying increasingly erratic behavior.”
“Researchers have been trying to develop a test for CTE in the living, but results have been uneven. The future of testing for CTE hinges on developing ways of identifying the tau protein without requiring brain samples. Scientists in multiple research institutes are working to identify biomarkers for the disease that can be seen in samples of blood, saliva, or spinal fluid, or by using brain imaging scans.”
An option for a major test for CTE, especially in the living, will be to develop a thorough explanation of all the symptoms of the condition, using the collection of the electrical and chemical signals, in clusters of neurons. This would use information organization and transport to explore where things may have gone wrong and to prospect new therapies, because of observed changes. There could be clear transport cuts. There could be clear configuration shortages. It will decide where to seek solutions and to avoid firearm suicides and homicides. Electrical and chemical signals can be assumed to be configurators for functions, not for neural communication.
The human mind, distinct from the body, can be conceptually described as the collection of all the electrical and chemical configurators — with their interactions and attributes, in sets, in clusters of neurons — across the central and peripheral nervous systems. Simply, the human mind is the set[s] of [neuro]configurators. Interactions mean the strike of electrical configurators on chemical configurators, in sets. This means that anything that can have an effect on electrical configurators or chemical configurators can influence the mind. So, functions are from interactions. While attributes grade the functions or determine the limits or extents for those functions.
Memory loss, mood changes, confusion, and trouble thinking clearly
Memory, in the brain, is mostly available as thick sets [of electrical and chemical configurators]. This means a collection of whatever is common between two or more thin sets. So, a chair is a thick set. Most interpretations of chairs are done within that thick set. Within the thick set, there are paths to access other information. If something goes wrong with the set or path, the memory of chairs could be impeded.
Also, there are paths from other sets to that thick set. If there are interruptions too, there could be memory loss. It is possible to check if it is the whole thick set that is lost [or some] by showing different kinds of chairs. It is possible to rebuild it again, as new thick sets in memory. If it is the path, it is workable to use a lot of chairs in view [in rehabilitation]. Just as an example, as real-world cases are more complicated.
Mood is an emotion. Sets [of electrical and chemical configurators] for emotions often bear angular displacements, making them linger, in the array [an attribute] towards prioritization. As soon as a bad mood shows up, knowing that it is the case may result in seeking out possible options to remove the set from the lock, at the angle. Confusion could be a result of too many splits of electrical signals or the use of old sequences instead of new ones. Thinking troubles could be similar, but may involve low intensity of electrical configurators, low volumes of chemical signals, adjusted thick sets, and so forth.
Progress against CTE could arrive from theoretical neuroscience, as other efforts mount.
This article was written for WHN by David Stephen, who currently does research in conceptual brain science with a focus on the electrical and chemical configurators for how they mechanize the human mind with implications for mental health, disorders, neurotechnology, consciousness, learning, artificial intelligence, and nurture. He was a visiting scholar in medical entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL. He did computer vision research at Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona.
As with anything you read on the internet, this article on CTE should not be construed as medical advice; please talk to your doctor or primary care provider before changing your wellness routine. WHN neither agrees nor disagrees with any of the materials posted. This article is not intended to provide a medical diagnosis, recommendation, treatment, or endorsement.
Opinion Disclaimer: The views and opinions on CTE expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of WHN/A4M. Any content provided by guest authors is of their own opinion and is not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual, or anyone or anything else. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
