Brief Guide to the CTE Brains in the News. Part 2: Fred McNeill

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is the neurodegenerative disease of the moment, made famous by the violent and untimely deaths of many retired professional athletes. Repeated blows to the head sustained in contact sports such asboxing and American football can result in abnormal accumulations oftau protein (usually many years later). The autopsied brains from two of these individuals are shown below.Left: courtesy of Dr. Ann McKee inNYT. Right: courtesy of Dr. Bennett Omalu inCNN. These are coronal sections1 from the autopsied brains of: (L) Aaron Hernandez, aged 27; and(R) Fred McNeill, aged 63.Part 1 of this series looked at complicating factors in the life of Aaron Hernandez— PCP abuse, death by asphyxiation—that presumably hadsome impact on his brain beyond the effects of concussions in football.Part 2 will discuss the tragic case of Fred McNeill, former star linebacker for the Minnesota Vikings. Hedied in 2015 from complications ofAmyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), suggesting that his was not a “pure” case of CTE, either.Fred McNeillMcNeill in 1974 (Mike Zerby /Minneapolis Star Tribune).Obituary: Standout of the 1970s and 1980s was suffering from dementia and died from complications from ALS, according to Matt Blair [close friend and former teammate]ALS is a motor neuron disease that causes progressive wasting and death of neurons that control voluntary muscles of the limbs and ultimately the muscles that control breathing and swallowing. Around 30-...
Source: The Neurocritic - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Source Type: blogs