In August 2012, President Obama gave an Executive Order to make a national research plan to treat and prevent traumatic brain injury (TBI). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health conditions are part of this plan.

Many veterans in recent military conflicts had one or more mild TBIs, also called concussions. Recent conflicts are Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation New Dawn.

The DoD and VA gave money to learn about, treat and prevent concussions. In 2014, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and their collaborators were awarded a 5-year grant. In 2019, VCU and their collaborators were awarded a second 5-year grant.

The name of this project is Long-term Impact of Military-relevant Brain Injury Consortium-Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium (LIMBIC-CENC).

The LIMBIC-CENC goals are to:

1. Learn more about how concussion affects the brain,
2. Find out the effects of concussion later in life, such as risk for dementia,
3. See if some service members and Veterans are more likely to be affected,
4. Identify the best treatments for concussion, and

LIMBIC-CENC has a Knowledge Translation Center to give information on concussion to service members, Veterans, clinicians, researchers and others.