Dr. Clif CleavelandProfessional football in the United States is a multi-billion dollar industry which profoundly influences how the game is played at the college and high school levels. Despite attempts to limit helmet-to-helmet hits during games and practices the number of concussions appears unchanged.
The most violent collisions are the ones highlighted by sportscasters and cheered by spectators with no regard to the consequences to the players. Two recent studies quantify injuries to the brains of high school and college football players with and without diagnoses of game-induced concussions.
A report earlier this year from the biomedical engineering school at Purdue University used functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to evaluate cognitive impairment in high school football players. This technique allows real-time study of how various pathways in the brain respond to stimulation that involves seeing, hearing and thinking.
Players were evaluated in the preseason and at season’s end. The study contrasted players who had a clinically confirmed diagnosis of a concussion during the season with those who did not. Surprisingly, half the players without a history of concussion showed persistent defects in cognition and other brain responses.
Players with documented concussions were more likely to exhibit behavioral defects attributed to damage in regions of the brain that process language. Players with abnormal scans but with no history of concussion showed defects in working memory and processing of visual stimuli.