ILLINOIS: A study suggests that low-level light treatment may have an impact on the healing process in the brains of individuals who have experienced serious brain injuries.

The findings of the study were published in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

The ability of various wavelengths of light to heal wounds has been researched for many years.

Low-level light treatment was used by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) on 38 patients who had experienced moderate traumatic brain injury, which is defined as a head injury severe enough to affect cognition and/or be detectable on a brain scan.

Within 72 hours of their injury, patients underwent light therapy using a near-infrared light-emitting helmet.

“The skull is quite transparent to near-infrared light,” said study co-lead author Rajiv Gupta, M.D., Ph.D., from the Department of Radiology at MGH.

“Once you put the helmet on, your whole brain is bathing in this light.”

The researchers used an imaging technique called functional MRI to gauge the effects of the light therapy.