There's bound to be a few bruises in a contact sport like football. According to a study, brain changes can occur even after just a single season of playing high school football.
Presented at the Radiological Society of North America's annual meeting on Dec. 1, the study involved 24 high school football players aged 16 to 18 years old. All the subjects underwent evaluation with diffusion tensor imaging of the brain before and after a season, with head impact monitoring carried out for all practices and games. The data allowed researchers to categorize the players into nine heavy hitters and 15 light hitters. None of them received a concussion during the season.
Several studies have emerged through the years tackling the possible effects of sports on young developing brains. Most of the studies, however, were dealing with brain changes caused by concussions. Christopher Whitlow, M.D., Ph.D., M.H.A. and colleagues wanted to see if impacts to the head received over the course of one high school football season could result in changes in white matter in the brain even without clinically diagnosed concussions.
Diffusor tensor imaging results in fractional anisotropy, a measurement of water molecule movement in axons that connect parts of the brain. When a brain's white matter is healthy, fractional anisotropy is high and water molecule movement is fairly uniform. When fractional anisotropy values drop and water molecule movement becomes more random, abnormalities in axons are likely to be present.
According to the study, both heavy and light hitters exhibited increased levels of fractional anisotropy, reflecting brain development in the high school football players. However, the heavy hitters registered lower levels of fractional anisotropy after the season, highly suggestive of changes in their brains.
"Similar brain MRI changes have been previously associated with mild traumatic brain injury. However, it is unclear whether or not these effects will be associated with any negative long-term consequences," explained Dr. Whitlow.
The study's results are preliminary and thus will require further research to be substantial. However, it adds to the growing body of evidence that playing a contact sport for just one season can affect the brain even when clinical findings are not present.
Other authors of the study include Joseph Maldjian, M.D.; Joel Stitzel Jr., PhD.; Alexander Powers, M.D.; Gerard Gioia, Ph.D.; Daryl Rosenbaum, M.D.; Youngkyoo Jung, Ph.D.; Mark Espeland, Ph.D.; Fatemeh Mokhtari, M.S.; Jillian Urban, B.S.; Elizabeth Davenport, M.S.; and Naeim Bahrami; M.S.
