Heading Soccer Balls Could Cause Changes in White Matter, Similar to Traumatic Head Injuries

Tossing the ball around might be a bit more dangerous than we know. For soccer players in particular, scans from a study revealed that those who hit the ball with their head experienced a lot of changes regarding white matter in their brain. And some of these changes were even similar to those who had suffered traumatic head injuries.

A recent study shows that these individuals may be at a higher risk of developing thinking and memory problems, too.

"We chose to study soccer players, because soccer is the most popular sport worldwide," said Michael L. Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., associate director of the Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and medical director of MRI at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, via Science Blog. "It is widely played by people of all ages, including children, and there is significant concern that that heading the ball-a key component of soccer-might cause damage to the brain."

Statistics show that more than 265 million people play the game worldwide, which can cause heading to be a serious problem, especially when involved in competitive games.

In fact, U.S. News and World Report writes that players in competitive games often head the ball between an average of six and 12 times. And, in this elite level of play, the ball can travel at velocities of 50 miles per hour or more, according to the study.

"We looked at the relationship between heading and changes in the brain and changes in cognitive functions [thinking and memory], and we found that the more heading people do, the more likely we are to find microscopic structural abnormalities in the brain, and they're more likely to do poorly on cognitive tests, particularly in terms of memory," Lipton said, according to the study.

However, Lipton added that the study did not necessarily pinpoint changes in the brain to heading.

For the current study, Lipton recruited 37 adult amateur soccer players, ages 21 to 44. Twenty-eight of the volunteers were men who played at least one competitive soccer game each week, and practiced an average of two times a week.

All participants underwent an imaging technique called diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging that produces detailed images that show microscopic changes in the white matter of the brain.

The players also filled out a questionnaire about such factors as frequency of heading and prior concussions, and completed a number of tests to measure their thinking and memory skills.

Researchers found that a threshold of harm only allows a certain amount of injuries to the head. For instance, the threshold was between 885 and 1,550 headers a year to see changes in the brain, and higher than 1,800 headings a year for changes in memory scores.

"People can take some degree of trauma. Not everyone who bumps their head on a cabinet will have concussion symptoms. The question is how much does it take to have a lasting injury? And, that remains an open question, especially in children," Lipton said, according to the study.

Researchers also pointed out that the study showed that even minor effects could have lasting results on the brain, including memory, learning and possible overall damage.

Results of the study were released online June 11 in the journal Radiology.