“ By identifying a brain network that can be targeted with therapeutic brain stimulation treatments, this offers promise for the development of new therapeutic interventions for those who suffer from longer-term debilitating chronic effects of PSaC.”
Issue 35.1 WINTER 2026
Dr. Matthew Burke, a senior author of a new study and a cognitive neurologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre who leads the Traumatic Brain Injury Recovery Program.“ Narrowing in on the networks of the brain responsible for this condition opens up the possibility for research to target the area and hopefully develop better treatment( s).”
Published in the journal Nature Mental Health, the study findings show that a circuit anchored in the salience network is disproportionately affected in individuals whose symptoms persist after experiencing a concussion.
The salience network acts like a switchboard to detect relevant internal and external stimuli, filters them to prioritize behaviour, and directs attention and resources. When someone suffers a concussion, the brain is bombarded with new stimuli / symptoms from the body and dysfunction of the salience network could result in amplification and chronification of such symptoms.
In the study, the researchers conducted a systematic review of 19 neuroimaging studies consisting of 1,300 participants to investigate the neural networks thought to be involved in PSaC, and whether it differed between individuals categorized with“ high” symptoms or“ low” symptoms.
“ Using personalized network mapping, we were able to identify an area of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex – a part of the brain involved in executive functions – maximally co-activated or correlated with the salience network,” says Dr. Adriano Mollica, first author of the paper and a neuropsychiatrist in the Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program who cares for patients with a traumatic brain injury( TBI). This region is accessible to non-invasive brain stimulation technologies such as transcranial magnetic stimulation and offers a target to modulate the dysfunctional circuit.
“ While more research is needed to validate these findings, the consistent emergence of the salience network in PSaC studies underscores its core role in chronic symptoms following concussion and mild TBI,” adds Dr. Sean Nestor, a senior author of the study and an interventional psychiatrist at the Harquail Centre for Neuromodulation at Sunnybrook.“ By identifying a brain network that can be targeted with therapeutic brain stimulation treatments, this offers promise for the development of new therapeutic interventions for those who suffer from longer-term debilitating chronic effects of PSaC.”
As a next step in this research, Drs. Burke and Nestor are conducting a pilot study investigating whether targeting this network with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation( rTMS) – a non-invasive medical procedure using magnetic pulses to stimulate nerve cells in the brain – can improve symptoms in persons with PSaC. g
“ By identifying a brain network that can be targeted with therapeutic brain stimulation treatments, this offers promise for the development of new therapeutic interventions for those who suffer from longer-term debilitating chronic effects of PSaC.”
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