Sports / Off the Field
Signs of brain shrinkage seen in soccer players
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-07-24 04:15
NEW YORK - College-age soccer players may show some degree of
brain-tissue shrinkage, a small study has found -- adding to evidence
that the sport carries a risk of long-term brain injury.
Using high-resolution MRI brain scans, researchers found evidence of
reduced gray matter in the brains of 10 male college soccer players,
compared with 10 young men who had never played the sport.
Gray matter refers to the brain tissue that controls thinking and memory.
The significance of the relatively smaller gray matter volume and density
seen in these players is not yet clear, the researchers say.
However, some past studies have found that professional and even
college-age soccer players are more likely to show problems with memory
and attention than non-players.
Among players in the current study, reduced gray matter was seen in a
part of the brain called the anterior temporal cortex -- which is
consistent with effects from repeated knocks to the front of the head,
John Adams and colleagues at the University of Cincinnati College of
Medicine in Ohio report in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine.
Like many other sports, soccer carries some risk of concussion, from
players colliding with each other or with the ground, for instance.
Multiple concussions over time can cause brain damage.
It's still a matter of debate, though, whether the ordinary knocks
involved in "heading" the soccer ball raise the risk of brain injury.
Of the 10 soccer players in the current study, only 2 said they'd
suffered a mild concussion in the past, while none reported a history of
serious head injury. It's impossible to tell exactly why the players
showed relatively less gray matter than the comparison group.
"I'd be very reluctant to ascribe this purely to heading," said study
co-author Dr. Caleb Adler, an assistant professor of psychiatry and
neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
The bottom line, he told Reuters Health, is that while these findings are
preliminary, they add to evidence that soccer is "not an entirely benign
sport."
"Any activity is a balance of risk and benefits," Adler said.
Some youth soccer leagues ban heading before a certain age, he noted. But
further safety measures, including head gear that would lessen the impact
of any knock to the head, might be warranted, he said.
More research, Adler said, is needed to flesh out the potential long-term
brain injury risks associated with soccer.
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