Tuesday, January 27, 2026<\/p>\n
A study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides the clearest evidence to date to link severe chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) to dementia risk. CTE is a degenerative brain disorder in some people who have had repeated head impacts over time. It can only be diagnosed after death by examining brain tissue. While researchers were able to link severe CTE (stages III and IV) to dementia risk, they did not find any measurable link between less severe CTE (stages I and II) and changes in thinking, mood, or daily functioning.<\/p>\n
The research, led by scientists at Boston University CTE Center and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, analyzed 614 donated brains from people with known exposure to repetitive head impacts. None of the donors had Alzheimer\u2019s disease, Lewy body disease, or frontotemporal lobar degeneration, three of the most common neurodegenerative diseases that cause dementia.<\/p>\n
CTE is marked by the buildup of abnormal tau protein \u2013 which in healthy brains helps keep nerve cells stable and working properly. In CTE, tau forms small, brownish tangles clustered around tiny blood vessels deep in the brain\u2019s grooves and spreads more widely as the disease advances.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy examining hundreds of brains and ruling out other common neurodegenerative diseases, the team could look at CTE alone and linked it to symptoms reported during life,\u201d said Dr. Amy Bany Adams, acting director of the NIH\u2019s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), which funded the research.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that individuals with stage IV CTE were 4.5 times more likely to have had dementia during life than donors without CTE. Stage III CTE was also associated with higher dementia risk. In contrast, stages I-II were not found to be associated with dementia, cognitive impairment, or functional decline. Mood and behavioral symptoms were not observed at any stage of CTE.<\/p>\n
Dr. Richard Hodes, director of the NIH\u2019s National Institute on Aging (NIA), which also funded the research, noted important implications for dementia research. \u201cUnderstanding which brain changes drive cognitive decline is essential,\u201d he said. \u201cThis study shows that only severe CTE has a clear link to dementia, which provides an important distinction for researchers, healthcare providers, and families.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study also indicates that mood or behavior changes commonly attributed to CTE may instead come about from other brain effects of repetitive head impacts or from unrelated medical or environmental factors.<\/p>\n
The new results build on NIH-funded work published earlier this year<\/a> showing that repetitive head impacts in young athletes can trigger early cellular changes \u2013 such as immune activation, blood vessel alterations, and loss of certain brain cells \u2013 well before tau buildup in the brain appears. However, it is still not clear whether these early brain changes cause any symptoms or lead to CTE later in life. Together, the two studies outline a more complete picture of how repetitive head impacts affect the brain over time.<\/p>\n This work was supported by grants from NINDS and NIA. Long-term federal investment enabled analysis of one of the largest CTE cohorts ever assembled, allowing researchers to untangle the specific effects of CTE on brain function and disease for the first time.<\/p>\n This research was supported by NINDS through grant U54 NS115266 and NINDS and NIA through grants\u202fR01NS122854 and R01NS139383.<\/p>\n About the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS):\u00a0<\/strong>NINDS is the nation\u2019s leading funder of research on the brain and nervous system. The mission of NINDS is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease.\u00a0https:\/\/www.ninds.nih.gov<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n About the National Institute on Aging (NIA):<\/strong>\u00a0NIA seeks to understand the nature of aging and diseases associated with growing older, with the goal of extending the healthy, active years of life.\u00a0https:\/\/www.nia.nih.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):<\/strong> NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n NIH\u2026Turning Discovery Into Health\u00ae<\/p>\n Reference<\/p>\n Layden R, Groh J, Miner A, et al. CTE Neuropathology Alone Associated with Dementia and Cognitive Symptoms. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. 2026. DOI: 10.1002\/alz.71032<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tuesday, January 27, 2026 A study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides the clearest evidence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[150316,868,18,135,19,17,31646,150314,523,150315,1002,119042],"class_list":{"0":"post-306163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-cte","9":"tag-dementia","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-nih","15":"tag-ninds","16":"tag-risk","17":"tag-severe","18":"tag-study","19":"tag-ties"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115967168921750319","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}