Health · Medical Research · 3 hrs ago
Former UFC fighter researches ways to detect CTE in living athletes
Thiago Tavares, a Brazilian former UFC featherweight, retired from fighting in 2021 and later became a doctor specializing in neurology.
He is now researching chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a brain condition linked to repeated head impacts.
CTE can currently be confirmed only by examining brain tissue after death, and there is no reliable marker to identify it in living people.
Tavares’s project will involve 40 former UFC fighters from his generation who competed between 2010 and 2017.
The team plans to measure their brain activity with an electroencephalography helmet and use artificial intelligence alongside assessments of their symptoms.
The aim is to find a marker that could help identify CTE in living athletes.
Tavares hopes the work will help future generations of fighters.
Former UFC featherweight Thiago Tavares is researching potential ways to detect chronic traumatic encephalopathy in living former fighters.
The Brazilian retired from mixed martial arts in 2021 and became a practicing physician specializing in neurology.
His master's thesis will examine brain-wave measurements, symptoms and artificial intelligence for possible markers of the disease.
The project is planned to involve 40 former UFC fighters who competed between 2010 and 2017.
CTE can currently be definitively diagnosed only by examining brain tissue after death, Tavares said.
- Who
- Former UFC featherweight Thiago Tavares and his research team.
- What
- They are studying whether brain-wave measurements, symptoms and artificial intelligence could help identify CTE in living former fighters.
- When
- Tavares retired in 2021. The study's participants competed between 2010 and 2017.
- Where
- Not stated.
- Why
- To search for a reliable marker that could help identify CTE in living people and support future generations of the sport.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Unfortunately, the only way to confirm CTE is through the study of brain tissue (a post-mortem biopsy) in the anatomopathological exam
There is still no reliable marker able to indicate that an athlete is affected by CTE, so based on certain symptoms we say that he has traumatic encephalopathy syndrome.
We will use a helmet that performs a functional electroencephalogram and measures the brain's waves, including the use of AI in an attempt to find that marker, on top of, obviously, the in-depth study of the symptoms that would allow us to state that an individual has CTE even before [they] die
Everything I have in my life, the UFC gave me
The former UFC fighters planned for the study competed during this period.
Tavares retired from mixed martial arts.
Sherdog reported that Tavares was working on a master's thesis about potential CTE markers in former fighters.
- Planned participants
- 40 former UFC fighters
- Participants' competition years
- 2010–2017
- Tavares's retirement
- 2021
- Research methods
- Functional electroencephalography, symptom assessment and artificial intelligence
- Current definitive diagnosis
- Examination of brain tissue after death
Sources
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