Youth football alters nerve fibers in the brain

CHICAGO – MRI exams show that repeated blows to the head cause brain changes in young football players, according to a new study presented today at the annual meeting of the American Radiology Society North (RSNA).

Football has been the subject of much attention in recent years due to growing concerns about the long-term consequences of repeated impacts to the head. Players with concussion signs are usually removed from games, but many touches to the head are subconscious – or below the threshold of a concussion – and therefore do not cause immediate symptoms. There is a growing concern that young football players who experience these collisions in practices and games may be vulnerable to their effects.

"The years from 9 to 12 years are very important for brain development," said Jeongchul Kim, Ph.D., lead author of the study, from the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, Carolina North "The functional regions of the brain begin to integrate with each other and players exposed to repetitive brain damage, even if the impact is low, could be at risk."

Dr. Kim and his colleagues have been studying the results of these collisions in young football players using a new MRI method that examines the obvious tension on the white substance bundles – the bundles of nerve fibers that carry information. between different areas of the brain.

"The focus here was on the deformations of these bundles of fibers," said Dr. Kim. "Changes due to collisions can cause these bundles to lengthen or contract."

Twenty-six young football players, averaging 12 years old, underwent an MRI before and about three months after the end of the season. In comparison, 22 boys of the same age who did not participate in contact sports had MRIs at the same time.

The results of the MRI showed that football players had developed changes in the corpus callosum, an extremely important group of nerve fibers that connects the two halves of the brain. The main role of the corpus callosum is to integrate the cognitive, motor and sensory functions between the two sides of the brain.

There were signs of greater axial deformation (contraction) in some parts of the corpus callosum, and indications of radial deformity (expansion) in other parts.

"The body of the corpus callosum is a unique structure that looks like a bridge connecting the left and right hemispheres of the brain," said Dr. Kim. "When it will be subjected to external forces, some areas will contract and others will grow, such as when a bridge is twisted by the wind."

The results suggest that repeated sub-concussion impacts associated with participation in youth contact sports may result in changes in the shape of the corpus callosum during this critical period of brain development. Dr. Kim warned, however, that more evidence was needed to confirm the results. His group intends to continue to study the players, as far as possible, to see if there is any further deformation.

The ultimate goal of the research, said Dr. Kim, is to provide guidelines for the safety of football. MRI can play a role in this process by helping to determine if and when an athlete can resume play after a head injury. Positron emission tomography, an imaging technique that can detect signs of inflammation in the brain, is also potentially helpful in this regard, according to Dr. Kim.

"It is better to detect the changes as soon as possible," he said.

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The co-authors are Youngkyoo Jung, Ph.D., Richard A. Barcus, Joel Stitzel, Jillian Urban, Elizabeth M. Davenport, PhD, Alexander K. Powers, MD, Joseph A. Maldjian, MD and Christopher T. Whitlow, MD, Ph.D.

Note: Copies of RSNA 2018 press releases and electronic images will be available online at RSNA.org/press18 beginning Monday, November 26.

RSNA is an association of more than 54,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and scientists from the same field. It promotes excellence in patient care and health care delivery through education, research, and technological innovation. The company is based in Oak Brook, Ill. (RSNA.org)

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