• Posted November 27, 2024

Soccer 'Headers' Could Pose Danger to Brains

Bouncing a soccer ball off the head during play could be doing real damage to the brain, a new study suggests.

MRI brain scans of male and female soccer athletes suggests that lots of "heading" could damage areas of the brain already known to be linked to debilitating concussion-linked conditions, such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

“The potential effects of repeated head impacts in sport are much more extensive than previously known and affect locations similar to where we’ve seen CTE pathology,” said study senior author Dr. Michael Lipton,  professor of radiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City. “This raises concern for delayed adverse effects of head impacts.”

He and his colleagues are slated to present their findings in Chicago next week at a meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Previous studies have suggested that head impacts of all kinds might be linked to neurological issues such as CTE, according to an RSNA news release. 

In the new study, Lipton's groups used a high-tech form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to track changes in "microstructures" close to the surface of the brains of 352 amateur soccer players and 77 "non-collision" athletes, such as runners. Participants ranged from 18 to 53 years of age.

Players who had engaged in a lot of soccer headers showed changes in the brain’s white matter adjacent to sulci -- deep grooves in the brain’s surface. Changes in this area are also known to happen when very severe traumatic brain injuries strike, the authors noted.

Soccer heading may have helped create these changes, which were largely observed in the frontal lobe of the brain. 

Folks who headed a lot of balls were also more likely to have what the researchers called "poor verbal learning."

Importantly, most of the participants had never been diagnosed with a concussion or other traumatic brain injury, the researchers said. So it's possible that more subtle kinds of head hits, such as heading, might still be damaging the brain.

“Our analysis showed that the white matter abnormalities represent a mechanism by which heading leads to worse cognitive performance,” Lipton said in an RSNA news release. 

The new data might end up helping athletes.

“Characterizing the potential risks of repetitive head impacts can facilitate safer sport engagement to maximize benefits while minimizing potential harms,” Lipton said. “The next phase of the study is ongoing and examines the brain mechanisms underlying the MRI effects and potential protective factors.”

Because these findings are to be presented at a medical meeting, they should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

Find out more about CTE at the Mayo Clinic.

SOURCE: Radiological Society of North America, news release, Nov. 27, 2024