Football headings can lead to CTE-like brain damage: study

Walking in football may cause more brain damage than previously thought, according to a new study.

Researchers from the Radiological Society of North America looked at links between one of soccer’s most common practices – heading the ball – and neurodegenerative diseases such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

The study found that soccer players who ran the ball at higher levels showed abnormalities of the brain’s white matter — a region of the brain where abnormalities indicate severe traumatic brain injuries.

The researchers said most of the damage was found in the frontal lobe of the brain – the part of the skull below that soccer players are taught to use to drive the ball.

“The potential effects of repetitive head impacts in sports are much broader than previously recognized and affect locations similar to where we have seen CTE pathology,” said senior study author Dr. Michale Lipton, professor of radiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. in New York.

The study claims that noggin knockers cause damage to the white matter near the foci, which are grooves in the brain’s cerebral cortex.

“Our analysis showed that white matter abnormalities represent a mechanism by which driving leads to worse cognitive performance,” said Dr. Lipton.

“Abnormalities occur at sites most characteristic of CTE, are associated with worse ability to learn a cognitive task, and may affect future function,” said Dr. Lipton in study.

Most of the more than 400 volunteer amateur soccer players and other athletes used for the study had never suffered a concussion or been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury.

According to the researchers, blows to the head that do not cause immediate traumatic damage can still affect the brain in the long term.

Previous studies have confirmed that headers have caused injuries to the white matter in the brains of soccer players.

This new study used an approach using diffusion MRI technology to analyze the microstructure near the surface of the brain and draw new conclusions.