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Kamikaze Rides

Do Roller Coasters Injure the Brain?

Since I do not recall ever having uncomfortable cranial sensations post theme park thrills as a child or teenager, I had not thought to research this topic before revisiting these thrill seeking rides as an adult. Perhaps we are simply more aware of our ails and sensations as an adult, as a constant triage of what is happening to my body this time. So I looked into seemingly non-bias research studies, peer reviewed of course, to see if there had been any documented or measured injures to otherwise healthy individuals post roller coaster.

This is when I discovered a term called the G-force, which is used to rate the force against gravity one is subjected to going down roller coaster hills. My concern was primarily around the extended and significant amount of shaking and sudden changing of direction in which most of today’s roller coasters subject its patrons. That is when I started to reflect back to make myself judge whether most people in the park were of a certain socioeconomonic status translating to being somewhat more or less knowledgeable of the neurological changes and impact a ride could induce. Lets be clear, if Shaken Baby Syndrome is physical abuse and damaging so are these rides as our brains and bodies were literally thrown around in countering directions for over three minutes per ride. Okay so I have doctoral education in neurology so I am aware of coup countrecoup injuries where the brain suffers injury not only at the point of impact but also at the opposite side of the brain were the brain recoils. Not to mention the bruising the brain suffers from being rubbed around in the rigid boney skull. It makes perfect sense that theme park rides are a significant threat to our neurological integrity. But why is this not common knowledge? Well, it was not too long ago that riding a motorcycle or bike without a helmet was perfectly legal. So when you know better, you do better.

Notable mentions include,

Valerie Biousse, neurology specialist at Lariboisiere Hospital in Paris, warns that the numbers of cases where people began getting severe headaches hours after riding a roller coaster have increased as fairgrounds offer bigger rides and more people partake. The damage observed in patients, who were aged between 20 and 55, ranged from small strokes to minor bleeding in the walls of head arteries. These can be caused by the abrupt changes in acceleration that are typical of modern roller coasters. The effect is almost like a car crash which are known to produce invisible injuries that only become apparent the day after or days later.

Dr. Biousse told New Scientist magazine that the four patients she examined included a dance instructor in her thirties, and half of the patients she examined had no underlying diseases that could have contributed to the injuries she observed. In every published case, the first symptom was an unusual headache. People should be alarmed if they have a headache a little time after going on a roller coaster ride, or better yet reconsider the cost benefit analysis of the brief adrenaline rush.

The Health and Safety Executive, which is responsible for licensing roller coasters in the United Kingdom (UK), said that there is no legal limit on the G forces that a ride may exert. The onus is on the operator to demonstrate that risks to peoples’ health and safety is kept as low as reasonably practicable. That doesn’t mean zero risk. But we cannot leave it up to the owner operators who profit from families patronizing theme parks to warn us against their best interest. Special thanks to the Independent for bringing light to the issue.

A National Institute of Health (NIH) funded study has been published by Smith, et. al., in the Journal of Neurotrauma showing blood vessel abnormalities in the brain and high blood pressure caused by excitement are likely to blame for injuries as well. How many times have you braced yourself for a steep roller coaster hill?
There has been enormous attention in the UK general press on the possibility that high G force roller coasters are inducing brain injury in riders but not so much in the United States (U.S.). Is this an issue of capitalism over health or simply lack of knowledge? Armed with a handful of anecdotal case reports of brain injuries, the U.S. Congress finally proposed legislation to regulate the level of G forces of roller coasters.
On the bright side, the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association found that the high speed jolting motion of a roller coaster can successfully dislodge a kidney stone from a patient, especially if they sit in a rear car. Hope this fun fact helps someone, but potentially at the expense of a few neurons.

Further on the bright side, thrill rides take us out of our element. It was the jerking sensation of a roller coaster that helped Sally Dare, a British woman, detect a brain tumor in which she was unaware. She began suffering from headaches and dizziness following a roller coaster ride in Florida. As her condition worsened, she went to see a doctor and was diagnosed with a subdural hematoma. Research shows not everyone takes the impact of these rides the same. Prior head injuries, strokes, and encephalopathy would put a rider at greater risk. Now you know.

Finding Affordable Therapy

 How to get the best affordable most recommended therapy from the most skilled and experienced practitioners without insurance or an enormous price seems daunting. Sites such as OpenPath.com thankfully seek to fullfill the need for affordable options. However over time such platforms are flooded vastly of practitioners new to the field, which may be adequate depending your needs.

The key to finding affordable therapy is asking for it. A lot of therapists do not publicly post their sliding fee scale because everyone would want the lower rate. Fortunately, everyone doesn’t need it. A graduate school professor once told me, “You have to charge the ones who can pay so that you can still see the ones who can’t.” Payment is my least favorite part of healing as well. I wish quality services were available to all who need it. But my colleagues and I have come to learn that without it, frankly we wouldn’t have time to see you. We would have rush off to work. 

Other platforms such as Grow and Rula are fairly new but active insurance coverage is required. Keep in mind, in order for your therapist to be reimbursed by insurance, they must diagnose you with a recognized DSM-5 diagnosis. Many look to pay out of pocket to avoid diagnose related denials in the future. Gratefully, foundations such as the LoveLand Foundation facilitate saving your coin, as the foundation supplies applicants with a voucher in which to pay for therapy. Now that solves everything.

Full Psychology.org Interview

1. Interviewer: How do you think regular use of AI tools (e.g., chatbots, recommendation engines, smart assistants) may be reshaping the neurological pathways involved in critical thinking, memory, or attention?

Dr. Chappell: Serving in the field of cognitive rehabilitation after brain injuries for going on two decades, I base many of my rehab exercises on the evidenced based physiology of creating new pathways and detours to previous and novel knowledge. Using similar processes, we are aware that prompts, exposure, desensitization, and cognitive dissonance for instance can significantly influence one’s likelihood of generating similar thoughts via the same and similar pathways in the present and future. The research to support these claims already exists from the efficiency studies of phonemic and semantic cuing to studies addressing group think. Therefore, recommendation engines can be counter productive to strengthening word finding capabilities, saved phone numbers can be detrimental to digit span recall, and smart assistants may undermine critical thinking, if not used as supplemental tools versus replacing the need to give adjacent thought to a task. Furthermore, viewing a different feed every 15 to 60 seconds, the average length of a reel, can cause the brain to anticipate frequent changes in stimuli for a period of time, also recognized as decreased sustained attention.

Cognitive impact also includes, decreasing attention span and concentration, increasing attention deficit disorder behavior, increased impulsivity, and decreased time allotted to critical thinking before decision making, as has been well documented in peer reviewed journals. Neurologically, structural and functional changes have been documented, including rapidly changing engagement altering the reward centers in the midbrain to seek and expect dopamine in more frequent bursts in likeness of addictive behavior, decreased gray matter in the amygdala which assigns emotion and significance to memories, and the endurance changes in the hippocampus expecting instant gratification when not received leading to emotional dysregulation.

Meanwhile, interactive technology such as chatbots could stimulate thought and provide grounds in which to explore and expand subsequent ideas. Neurologically, brain function in the ventral tegmental area during use of chat bots could mirror that of bonding in humans with neuropeptide oxytocin production in the dopaminergic reward center when interactions are conversational versus transactional.

2. Interviewer: From a neurological standpoint, is there evidence or concern that reliance on AI could diminish our cognitive autonomy or decision-making agency? If so, how might this manifest in the brain?

Dr. Chappell: Well the way open source algorithms work and gather information can certainly diminish the credit for intellectual property sourced if adequate credit or mere attention is not given via providing sources of information gathered. Currently, AI does not adequately consider all aspects of a decision in which a human would. For example, we asked Gemini and ChatGPT to generate images of specific roof color options on a specific color and textured home. Well, neither accurately factored in the region, lighting, color absorption from surrounding structures, or the material of the roof as one would expect therefore both produced drastically incorrect images of each color sample. The problem is the lack of accountability from AI as ChatGPT merely puts a disclaimer “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info” at the end of their contribution. Over reliance on these mere tools could lead to costly mistakes, in this case a nine to fifteen thousand dollar mistake. By all means asking AI to generate a definition of a concept or recipe from the ingredients you have available can be harmless. Yet taking an open source’s gathering of information as fact can be costly for weighted tasks such as recalling history accurately, as factors such as not considering the source’s motives for their perspective on certain issues. There are plenty of assumptions about what AI has considered in productions of their results, therefore if it does not state a consideration, it was not considered. Accordingly, people without research backgrounds tend to overly rely on AI to answer questions yet currently meaningful decision making agency should not be yielded to open source platforms and the same cautions apply as the technology continues to develop. Just as use of Wikipedia would be inappropriate for use in a research paper due to the nature of the data derived, open source platforms are unreliable to recall all inclusive history, cite sources, and interpret information. For example several studies found an average of 52% of video scripts produced about attention deficit hyperactivity contained misleading and incorrect information. AI pulling from such sources would erroneously inform masses if used in place of human derived due diligence.
That being said, neurologically exercising decision making strengthens decision making. Just as muscles atrophy with extended lack of use, so can action potential pathways for processes such as explicit memory, working memory and reasoning which make up decision making. Use it or lose it. In practical use, studies measuring brain activity via electroencephalogram (EEG) for example displayed research groups who used ChatGPT to write papers had the lowest levels of brain activity and and became increasing lazier with each subsequent essay, neural, behavioral, linguistically speaking. Participates eventually diminished their research efforts to copying and pasting.

3. Interviewer: Could AI-enhanced thinking potentially have positive effects on brain function, such as reducing cognitive overload or enhancing learning? Under what conditions might this occur?

Dr. Chappell: AI could certainly take time off of mundane, less complicated tasks that are straight forward and increase productivity with higher level task automation, freeing time and energy for more layered considerations which require homo sapien derived experience, instinct, point of view, and interpretation. As with any tipping point, the information generated could spark discussion and debate which leads to communication and understanding of one another and adjacent groups, a plus. If individuals who would not have usually engaged in research plug into AI for answers to existential questions, one could argue that this is a positive effect by way of increasing access to data. Having to own an Enclocopidia or have excess to a library are no longer barriers to information. Now when a child has a thought then question such as “Why is the sky blue?” parents or the child independently may dive into explanation at their fingerstips, which could then lead to discovering of interests and earlier career development. AI use as an exploritory feature could have positive benefits on specifically left side Brocca’s and Weinke’s area brain function and development, as these areas control language use and function. People are asking AI questions they would ask a mentor and questions they may not be comfortable asking those in their lives, therefore instead of going without knowledge, learning is being enhanced yet sources stated should be explored for further interpretation as well.

4. Interviewer: How might AI-driven personalization and predictive technologies impact the development of self-regulation, especially in younger users whose brains are still developing?

Dr. Chappell: Consider, if a person has been conditioned to make their bed each morning, that repetition places that task in their implicit memory, which is how unconscious tasks such as riding a bike and typing are stored. Perhaps you have noticed decreased spelling capabilities from reliance on autocorrect and decreased digit span capacity from not having to recall seven digit phone numbers. Lack of use and repetition of the tasks prevent implicit storage. Thus, we see that dependance on such tools works against development and maintenance of that skill, especially before a skill has been adequately developed. Therefore fatiguing neural pathways for encoding and retrieval in those who previously developed the skills and limiting capacity in youth who have yet to develop the skill.

Therefore as a solution, how these technologies are introduced is important. I can not emphasize enough that AI should be supplemental to our thinking, not a replacement. So when a parent or individual allows themselves or their children use AI, pairing use with thought provoking questions and/or discussion during or afterwards to expound upon findings would be an exemplary practice. One could ask, “What did this AI generated explanation not consider?” or “What would you add to this explanation?” as prompts after each use. This simple cue teaches users to adopt AI platforms as an instrument to aid their capable problem solving and see the discrepancies and shortcomings of the software while boosting their confidence in their own cognitive abilities.

5. Interviewer: Do you foresee a long-term impact on metacognition—our ability to think about our own thinking—if AI continues to play a growing role in providing answers and solutions?

Dr. Chappell: As Artificial Intelligence serves as a growing influence producing significant and irreversible change, the way we think about thinking is bound to evolution. I see challenges in granting proper credence to the originators of certain intellectual property or perhaps if acknowledged sufficiently, one would not have to be a Ph.D at a higher learning institution to receive credit for their ideas and contributions to the greater open source. While social media lacks tracking of the first source of an idea or concept efficiently, AI software could enhance and level the playing field for thought provoking concepts by tracking use chronologically so that we can recognize and regard the evolution of ideas, allowing credit to the humans who birthed them, as artificial intelligence assembles versus creates.

Does it matter how long I wait to receive therapy?

For brain related injuries and developmental delays…yes! Therapy is imperative immediately after a brain injury, no matter the cause of the change in brain function. The days to months following a brain injury are the most critical time to intervene to ensure cognitive impairments do not remain permanent. The period of spontaneous recovery in the months immediately after a brain injury is known as the time in which the brain has the most plasticity or ability to change. Therapy should be most aggressive as needed during this period.

For developmental delays, time is also of essence. The more time passing before seeking and commencing evaluation and intervention, the more the gap between chronological age and developmental age widens. This gap translates to youth performing below their peers and grade level, leading to more sounds, skills, and psycho-emotional pillars to learn before being able to focus on the natural progression and joys of development.

Their head was hit…it’s probably fine right?

What’s the next step? How do I access affordable services now? How do I know what therapy services I need/are recommended versus what I qualify for? Deficits in these areas easily go unnoticed. Many individuals are not put in situations which test the affected skills until for example returning to work or gradually resuming other responsibilities. At this point there are consequences to such inabilities which directly affect your ability to care and provide for yourself and your family. Do not wait until your co -workers notice a decline, get evaluated and back on track before deficits affect your work and social life.

Cognitive Decline Doesn’t Look as Obvious as You Think…

What do you suppose would be the telling signs of say memory loss? Frequent forgetfulness? Misplaced keys again and again? Oh if it were that simple. Signs of cognitive decline are actually much more subtle than one would imagine. Here are some examples care partners report:

• Doesn’t finish anything (decreased sustained attention, prefrontal cortex)
• “Lazy” Doesn’t do anything (decreased initiation, cerebellum)
• Doesn’t let go. Gets stuck on the small things (perseveration, Wernike’s Area)
• States inappropriate content or words (decreased inhibition and/or word finding, Broca’s Area)
• Tends in interrupt people speaking to get their point across (decreased working memory, midbrain)

Cognitive skills commonly affected include problem solving, reasoning, temperament, safety awareness, processing speed, attention, calculations, memory, and more. What if I feel fine? Deficits in these areas easily go unnoticed. Many individuals are not put in situations which test these skills until returning to work, school, or gradually resuming other responsibilities. Therefore, timely outpatient evaluation (yes even after receiving therapy while in the hospital and/or inpatient rehabilitation. Many times the hospital case managers educate patients and families on the next steps in which they qualify per insurance coverage meanwhile those who do not have insurance coverage are too often discharged from the hospital without recommendations for the therapy services they need to continue post discharge at home via outpatient or home health agency.

After a brain bleed, deprivation of oxygen, primary and secondary impact, crowding or excessive pressure, and/or concussion, there are damaged brain cells and death of brain cells. Since each area of our brain is responsible for a certain function, the function of the area of impact is expected to be affected. Follow through beyond hospital therapy services are imperative to ensure these deficits are as temporary as possible. New minor and major difficulties become long term deficits if not addressed. Likewise, once one falls behind their peers, the gap will continue to grow if not tested and treated.

Prevalence

Brain injuries can come in many forms, such as resulting from stroke, fall, motor vehicle accident, tumor, abuse, etc. Each year over 1.5 million individuals and families suffer from some form of brain injury. One in six children present with a developmental delay in the United States of America. In person and virtual appointments are available as your first step.

Tomika Chappell, Psy.D., CCC-SLP, CBIS, a nature and dog lover, dual speech-language pathologist and psychologist, has served across settings including level I trauma centers, intensive care units (ICU), acute care units, neonatal intensive care units (NICU), surgical trauma units, shock trauma units, skilled long term care facilities, psychiatric hospitals, home health, and educational settings, at Medical College of Georgia, Emory Healthcare, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Hospital Corporation of America, Henry County School System and the Georgia Department of Community Health. She now serves her community in private practice offering neurological and developmental testing, treatment, habilitation, and rehabilitation ranging in age across the life span from premature birth to hospice. With her unique training in developmental assessment, brain injury rehabilitation from the neck up, and mental health medical debriefing, Dr. Chappell’s work is rooted in neurology where she works to behaviorally rewire the brain for long-term results.