I've donated my brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation - after I'm finished with it naturally!
These folks are doing amazing research and they need lots of donor brains (concussed and otherwise) to keep doing it. When I read their study and saw the photographs of Aaron Hernandez's brain, I wanted to cry. His brain looked like a wilted, rotten cauliflower. If you ever wonder why [some] football players and professional athletes make millions.... that's why - and it's still not enough to compensate for destroying the single most important organ in your body.
https://concussionfoundation.org/get...earch-registry
I worry about my son. Growing up, he was an Adventurer par excellence and suffered eight diagnosed concussions between the ages of 5-18 years (mostly sports-related), and a ninth when he was 24 (auto accident). After he became a father, he stopped extreme sports, but he's still very active. He is forty-three now, and over the past few years, has begun to show symptoms of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Of course, it can't be diagnosed without a brain autopsy, but his doctor is concerned about the possibility based on his documented history of concussions. When he was young, we didn't know anything about the brain. We thought brain damage could never be reversed because we didn't understand the neuro-plasticity of the brain. If I knew then, what I know now, I would never have allowed him to start playing competitive contact sports at the age of six. Football, soccer, wrestling.... for 19 years, this guy was banging his head around on a weekly basis since he was SIX YEARS OLD! Ugh, it sickens me to think about it.