Of 21 high school players monitored for a full season by a team of researchers from Purdue University, four players who were never diagnosed with concussions were found to have suffered brain impairment that was at least as bad as that of other players who had been deemed concussed and removed from play.
The report, published in the latest edition of the Journal of Neurotrauma, found that some players received more than 1,800 hits to the head during practices and games, some with a force 20 times greater than what a person would feel while riding a roller coaster.
Chris Henry, who died in a domestic dispute last year, found that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a brain disease caused by repeated brain trauma. But the receiver reportedly had not suffered concussions in his collegiate or professional career, indicating that the head injuries — like those found in the Purdue study — didn't rise to the level of a clinical diagnosis.
But what surprised the researchers was that four players who showed no symptoms of concussion had significant performance drops on routine cognitive tests. Brain imaging tests also showed decreased activity in the parts of the players' brains associated with working memory.
"It's a tough slope because you could end up scaring kids away from even playing football, and you see that a lot," said Michael Holmes, the football coach at Leo High School in Chicago. "We make our kids conscious of it, but we don't try to scare them."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-football-brain-study-1006-20101005,0,7564132.story
The report, published in the latest edition of the Journal of Neurotrauma, found that some players received more than 1,800 hits to the head during practices and games, some with a force 20 times greater than what a person would feel while riding a roller coaster.
Chris Henry, who died in a domestic dispute last year, found that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a brain disease caused by repeated brain trauma. But the receiver reportedly had not suffered concussions in his collegiate or professional career, indicating that the head injuries — like those found in the Purdue study — didn't rise to the level of a clinical diagnosis.
But what surprised the researchers was that four players who showed no symptoms of concussion had significant performance drops on routine cognitive tests. Brain imaging tests also showed decreased activity in the parts of the players' brains associated with working memory.
"It's a tough slope because you could end up scaring kids away from even playing football, and you see that a lot," said Michael Holmes, the football coach at Leo High School in Chicago. "We make our kids conscious of it, but we don't try to scare them."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-football-brain-study-1006-20101005,0,7564132.story
