chronic traumatic encephalopathy

:  a progressive neurological disease that is found especially in athletes (as boxers, wrestlers, or football players) who have experienced repetitive, typically minor injury (as concussion) to the brain and is characterized by short-term memory loss, concentration deficits, confusion, depression, behavioral and personality changes (such as an increase in irritability, impulsivity, or aggression), speech and gait abnormalities, parkinsonism, and dementia—abbreviation CTE; called also dementia pugilistica, punch-drunk syndrome ◆The neurological deterioration of chronic traumatic encephalopathy is accompanied by atrophy of the frontal and temporal lobes and accumulation of tau protein in neurofibrillary tangles. … it is only in the past decade that scientists have identified the problem in American football players. They have also been able to identify, on autopsy, pathological markers for the disease, now called chronic traumatic encephalopathy …—Jeffrey Bartholet, Scientific American, February 2012 [Dr. Robert] Cantu said that symptoms of chronic traumatic encephalopathy include depression and erratic behavior, but he declined to speculate on any role the condition played in Benoit's final violent acts.—Alan Schwarz, The New York Times, 6 Sept. 2007