Why a woodpecker?

The selection of this month’s cover image is that of the North American woodpecker. Although the selection process briefly considered the Cape gannet and the bighorn sheep, the woodpecker emerged as the important and enduring subject of interest among scientists, clinicians, and engineers studying concussion and brain injury. Perhaps, a fundamental (or at least a popular) question surrounding “woodpecker research” is not so tangentially related to Alzheimer’s disease and dementia research: how does a woodpecker remain conscious while pecking? This year, the Journal published several articles investigating the topics of traumatic brain injury (TBI), its relationship with cognitive impairment and the risk of dementia, and the possibility of developing new therapeutic development strategies [1–19]. Joining an expanding group of international funders of Alzheimer’s and neurodegenerative disease research, the US Department of Defense and Department of Veterans’ Affairs are developing research capabilities to follow longitudinally injured service members and veterans. In addition to improving their care, these new data monitoring and assessment capabilities will enhance knowledge about the natural course of brain injury and multiple traumas over the entire life span extending from early adulthood until older ages [12]. TBI continues to emerge as an important public health problem with the highest incidence occurring among young adults (15–24 years of age) and in the elderly ( 75 years of age). There is growing speculation that TBI is an important pathway for the development of many other neurodegenerative disorders that affect memory, movement, and mood [20,21]. Certainly, further research is needed to confirm the existence of doseand frequency-dependent associations between TBI and a risk of neurodegenerative disease [22,23]. More data are needed to better quantify the linkages between these two different populations in terms of “early-life exposure” and “late-life disease onset.” Although concussion may be the most familiar form of TBI, the resulting neurodegenerative disease process remains enigmatic. Cerebral concussion is a brief disturbance of neural function caused by a sudden acceleration/deceleration of the head usually without skull fracture [24–33]. Falls, athletic collisions, physical assaults, and vehicular injuries are among the primary causes of concussion [34].