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Jury still out over risks of heading a soccer ball
August 12, 2003Heading the ball in soccer is unlikely to cause brain injury but head to head collisions might, says a leading sports physician in this week’s BMJ.
Concern was first raised following the case of Jeff Astle, a former England player, whose death was described as an “industrial disease” suggesting that repeated heading of soccer balls during his professional career was the cause of his neurological decline.
Heading a soccer ball results in head accelerations of less than 10g whereas the minimum values for the development of sport-related concussion are 40-60g, writes Dr Paul McCrory. In contrast, head to head contact can generate enough of the forces required to cause brain injury as in any conventional head injury.
This has led for calls for the use of protective headgear for soccer players, but research has found that commercially available soft helmets have only a limited protective role in this setting.
It seems unlikely that subconcussive impacts such as seen in head to ball contact will cause chronic neurological injury, he says. Although head to head contact may cause concussive injury, it is both uncommon and unlikely to result in cumulative brain injury.
Most head to head contact is inadvertent, and coaching techniques and visual perception training may help in a few cases but is unlikely to eliminate this problem entirely. Soft shell helmets or head protectors currently do not have the capability to prevent concussive trauma and hence cannot be recommended, he concludes.
British Medical Journal (BMJ)
This has led for calls for the use of protective headgear for soccer players, but research has found that commercially available soft helmets have only a limited protective role in this setting.
It seems unlikely that subconcussive impacts such as seen in head to ball contact will cause chronic neurological injury, he says. Although head to head contact may cause concussive injury, it is both uncommon and unlikely to result in cumulative brain injury.
Most head to head contact is inadvertent, and coaching techniques and visual perception training may help in a few cases but is unlikely to eliminate this problem entirely. Soft shell helmets or head protectors currently do not have the capability to prevent concussive trauma and hence cannot be recommended, he concludes.
British Medical Journal (BMJ)
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Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have gained new insights into regulation of one of the body's enzyme workhorses called calpains.
Simple brain mechanisms explain arbitrary human visual decisions
Mark Twain, a skeptic of the idea of free will, argues in his essay "What Is Man?" that humans do not command their minds or the opinions they form.
Ultrasound shown to exert remote control of brain circuits
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A new relationship between brain derived neurotrophic factor and inflammatory signaling
In the October 14th edition of Science Signaling researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia/University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and The University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine have shown that the development of epilepsy in adult rats is linked to functional changes in the expression of alpha 1 containing GABA-A receptors, the main inhibitory neurotransmitter receptor in the brain, that may be dependent upon BDNF-induced activation of the Janus kinase (JAK)/signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) pathway.
Direct recording shows brain signal persists even in dreamless sleep
Neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have taken one of the first direct looks at one of the human brain's most fundamental "foundations": a brain signal that never switches off and may support many cognitive functions.
Duke team finds compounds that prevent nerve damage
Duke University Medical Center scientists have made a significant finding that could lead to better drugs for several degenerative diseases including Huntington's disease and Alzheimer's disease.
New marker for raised intracranial pressure
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements of the thickness of the optic nerve sheath are a good marker for raised intracranial pressure (ICP).
Rapid changes in key Alzheimer's protein described in humans
For the first time, researchers have described hour-by-hour changes in the amount of amyloid beta, a protein that is believed to play a key role in Alzheimer's disease, in the human brain.
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