Sports
Study: Sacks, Tackles Alter Brain Structure of U.S. College Football Players
(Tech Times) – A growing number of studies link contact sports-related concussions and impacts with brain injury. A new research focused on college football players, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on May 14, adds to the poll of studies that suggest of risks associated with playing football.
In the new study, which examined the hippocampal volume, cognitive performance and football experience in college of study participants, Patrick Bellgowan, from the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma, and colleagues scanned the brains of 25 college football players who had at least one concussion, 25 players who do not have history of concussion and 25 men who did not engage in the sports.
The researchers then used the images from the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to measure the volume of certain regions in the participants’ brains and observed that the volume of the hippocampus, the region of the brain involved in memory and emotions, varied among the participants.