Fig. 12.

A) Frontal, coronal diagram of blood vessels including valveless, emissary veins in superior sagittal sinus. Emissary veins connect the extracranial venous system with intracranial venous sinuses, including direct passage from external scalp to meninges. Application of NIR photons promotes vasodilation of local blood vessels [61,71,72]. B) Frontal, coronal MRI of lymphatic vessels in superior sagittal sinus [134]. C) Sagittal MRI showing location of lymphatic vessels along superior sagittal sinus, rostral-to-caudal [134]. Application of NIR photons delivered here, are hypothesized to promote vasodilation of lymphatic vessels in dura mater [125]. This could assist in removing abnormal protein deposits, including p-tau present in CTE. Permissions: A) reprinted with authors’ permission [58]; schematic diagram by C. Foltz, based on plates from Grey’s Anatomy, Oxford University Press, public domain; B) and C) reprinted from open-access article [134].