Frequent ‘Heading’ in Soccer Increases Risk of Brain Injury and Cognitive Impairment

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center, the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, have found that repeatedly heading a soccer ball increases the risk for brain injury and cognitive impairment. They discovered this through the use of advanced imaging techniques and cognitive tests. The imaging portion of the findings was presented at the Radiological Society of North America’s (RSNA’s) annual meeting in Chicago this week.

The researchers used an advanced MRI-based imaging technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) on 38 amateur soccer players (average age: 30.8 years) who had all played the sport since childhood. They were asked to recall how many times they headed the ball during the past year. (Heading is when players deliberately hit or field the soccer ball with their head.) Researchers ranked the players based on heading frequency and then compared the brain images of the most frequent headers with the rest. They found that frequent headers showed brain injury similar to that seen in patients with concussion, also known as mild traumatic brain injury (TBI). For more information about this study, click here to read the full release.