Researchers at Columbia University have developed a new brain imaging method that reveals how heading a soccer ball can harm specific areas in the brain.
The damage is found in the cerebral cortex, just behind the forehead, and it affects memory and learning in people who head the ball often.
This study, published in JAMA Network Open, looked at amateur adult soccer players in New York City.
According to lead researcher Dr. Michael Lipton, this is the first strong evidence showing that repeated head impacts cause changes in the brain that lead to thinking problems.
The researchers used a special imaging method called diffusion MRI (dMRI) to look at the brain’s surface. This method shows how cells are organized.
They focused on the border between white and gray brain matter, as these areas react differently to impact and are prone to damage. The new method developed by graduate student Joan Song helped detect these changes more clearly.
The team scanned the brains of 352 soccer players who had different amounts of heading in the past year. They also scanned 77 people who didn’t play contact sports. Players who reported heading the ball more than 1,000 times per year had noticeable changes in the front part of their brains. These changes were not seen in other brain areas.
These frequent headers also scored lower on memory and learning tests compared to players who rarely or never headed the ball. The findings strongly suggest that repeated heading may cause brain damage and thinking problems.
Another study from the same lab, published in Neurology, supported these findings using a different imaging technique. Both studies found damage in the same brain area, making the evidence stronger.
Now, the researchers are looking into whether this kind of brain damage is related to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease found in athletes with many head impacts. They also want to study if regular exercise might protect the brain from damage caused by heading.
This new imaging method could help detect early signs of brain damage and lead to better ways to protect athletes from long-term harm.
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The study is published in JAMA Network Open.
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