By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

ABC News's "Nightline" program will be featuring a report on deceased former WWE wrestler Chris Benoit tonight as part of their summer series examining the human brain.

Tonight's episode from the series "Secrets of Your Mind: Why We Do What We Do" will include interviews with Michael Benoit, the father of Chris Benoit, and Dr. Julian Bailes of West Virginia University's neurosciences.

Bailes will be sharing his research from studying the brains of former pro athletes that show "repeat concussions could have lasting impacts on the brain."

The episode, airing at 10:00 p.m. EST on ABC, is specifically focused on "psychopathic behavior" and how it originates in the brain. Dr. Bailes will provide research that repeated head trauma to the brain can increase that behavior.

"While homicidal behavior is not typical, we believe it is possible, certainly suicide is very common with CTE (the degenerative chronic traumatic encephalopathy disease) as an end result," Bailes said in an interview on MetroNews Talkline in West Virginia.

Bailes specifically commented on Chris Benoit's case: "When he (Benoit) killed his wife and son and committed suicide in Atlanta, his father who lives in Canada had his brain sent here to WVU for us to study it."

"It's no longer the mindset that a concussion is a mild injury and that it's not just the brain not working right. There can be, in certain cases, actual brain damage."

The new TV feature on Chris Benoit, who murdered his wife and kid and committed suicide in June 2007, comes at a time when there is much more awareness on head trauma and the lasting effects of concussions compared to three years ago.

At the time, research in this important area was reaching more people within the wrestling industry and in the public due to the high-profile double-murder/suicide and the findings that Benoit's brain was equatable to an elderly man with Alzheimer's disease at the time of his death.

Links: Irv Muchnick's blog on the ABC News feature and Metro News in West Virginia report.

[Torch photo credit Wade Keller (c) PWTorch.com]

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