Brain abnormalities found in Cuba case

WASHINGTON — Doctors treating the U.S. embassy victims of suspected attacks in Cuba have discovered brain abnormalities as they search for clues to explain hearing, vision, balance and memory damage.

It's the most specific finding to date about physical damage, showing that whatever it was that harmed the Americans, it led to perceptible changes in their brains. The finding is also one of several factors fueling growing skepticism that some kind of sonic weapon was involved.

Medical testing has revealed the embassy workers developed changes to the white-matter tracts that let different parts of the brain communicate, several U.S. officials said, describing a growing consensus held by physicians researching the attacks.

Loud, mysterious sounds followed by hearing loss and ear-ringing had led investigators to suspect "sonic attacks." But officials are now avoiding that term, as the sounds may have been the byproduct of something else that caused damage, said three U.S. officials who demanded anonymity.

Physicians, FBI investigators and U.S. intelligence agencies have spent months trying to piece together the puzzle in Havana, where the U.S. says 24 U.S. government officials and spouses fell ill starting last year in homes and later in some hotels. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday that he's "convinced these were targeted attacks," but the U.S. doesn't know who's behind them. A few Canadian Embassy staffers also got sick.

U.S. officials wouldn't say whether the brain changes were found in all 24 patients. Most have fully recovered, some after rehabilitation and other treatment, officials said. About one-quarter had symptoms that persisted for long periods or remain to this day.