Publications by authors named "O G Vartanian"
Military breachers are routinely exposed to repetitive low-level blast overpressure, placing them at elevated risk for long-term neurological sequelae. Mounting evidence suggests that circulating brain-reactive autoantibodies, generated following CNS injury, may serve as both biomarkers of cumulative damage and drivers of secondary neuroinflammation. In this study, we compared circulating autoantibody profiles in military breachers ( = 18) with extensive blast exposure against unexposed military controls ( = 19).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground/objectives: Military aviators can be exposed to extreme physiological stressors, including decompression stress, G-forces, as well as intermittent hypoxia and/or hyperoxia, which may contribute to neurobiological dysfunction/damage. This study aimed to investigate the levels of neurological biomarkers in military aviators to assess the potential risk of long-term brain injury and neurodegeneration.
Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 48 Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) aviators and 48 non-aviator CAF controls.
There is substantial evidence to suggest that preference for visual curvature is a reliable phenomenon. Yet, little is known about the ways in which the encoding of curvature in the brain contributes to hedonic evaluation while participants are actively engaged in making choices about objects varying in curvature. To address this question, we reanalyzed fMRI data collected while participants made aesthetic judgments (beautiful vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Concussion is a significant public health issue that leads to neurochemical changes with serious long-term effects, highlighting the importance of understanding subconcussions, which can cause severe neurological deficits over time.
- Recent research shows that subconcussions, commonly occurring in contact sports and military exposure, may be a better predictor of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) than concussions, necessitating in vivo markers for earlier diagnosis.
- A study using magnetoencephalography and functional MRI on military personnel revealed disrupted neuronal activity and reduced functional connectivity linked to repetitive subconcussions, independent of any concussion history, suggesting potential paths for early intervention and monitoring.
Rationale: Behavioral effects of testosterone depend on dose, acute versus sustained formulation, duration of administration, personality, genetics, and endogenous levels of testosterone. There are also considerable differences between effects of endogenous and exogenous testosterone.
Objectives: This study was the secondary behavioral arm of a registered clinical trial designed to determine if testosterone protects against loss of lean body mass and lower-body muscle function induced by a severe energy deficit typical of sustained military operations.