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The study has equipped 60 footballers of young and high schools with no history of head trauma nor development problems with a head-impact telemetry system that measures the extent, the Location and direction of impacts on the head. The researchers were not interested in knowing if the impact had resulted in a concussion, but only to the impact.
Children were classified into two categories: high cumulative players (24) and low cumulative players (36).
Before starting to play, each child had a functional scan at rest, called fMRI. the scans were repeated at the end of the football season. The researchers were trying to see how exposure to repetitive strokes affected the normal process of "size" in the brain that occurs during adolescence.
"Size is an essential part of brain development," said Murugesan, comparing the process to the need to cut dead or unnecessary branches to preserve the health and growth of trees.
"It has been shown that disruption of normal pruning is linked to weaker connections between different parts of the brain," he said.
After comparing the functional results of MRI to the impact level of the player, the researchers found that the process of brain pruning of the high-impact group of young people was damaged after one season.
"Our study found a significant reduction in gray matter size in the default front-end network, implicated in higher cognitive functions, such as planning and controlling social behaviors," Murugesan said.
Although "adolescence is a critical period for brain development, brain remodeling or synaptic pruning, it was a short-term study that did not follow the players longitudinally for several years.We do not really know the full application, "said Dr. Julian Bailes, director of neurosurgery and co-director of the Neurological Institute of Health System at NorthShore University, which did not participate in the research.
"I would call this a pilot study," Isaacson said. "The call to action is that we need more robust longitudinal studies with pre-assessment and post-assessment more than brain imaging." should also measure cognitive and neurological function and look for changes. "
As we learn more about the problem, said Isaacson, parents should do everything in their power to limit contact in the sport, "especially in practice before games, where studies show that the majority of contacts occur ".
Bailes stressed caution in all sports, not just football.
"It's football, it's ice hockey, it's the fight," he said. "It's a sport that has the potential for collision and impact on the head."
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