Long football careers have been tied to problems with impulsive behavior and less white matter in the brain, according to a new study from Boston researchers who found that starting tackle football at a younger age was linked to more white matter loss.
More needs to be done to protect the brains of athletes, especially children, from repeated hits to the head, emphasized the scientists at the Boston University CTE Center.
This new finding about less white matter in the brain was independent of whether the football players had suffered CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), a progressive neurodegenerative disease frequently found in contact sports athletes.
Many former contact sports athletes suffer from thinking problems and impulsive behavior in the absence of CTE, or with very mild CTE. This new study suggests that a separate type of brain damage — which can appear earlier than CTE — may cause some of these symptoms.
“Damage to the white matter may help explain why football players appear more likely to develop cognitive and behavioral problems later in life, even in the absence of CTE,” said study author Thor Stein, a neuropathologist at VA Boston Healthcare System, and assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.
The researchers studied the brains of 205 dead American football players donated to the Veterans Affairs-Boston University-Concussion Legacy Foundation Brain Bank.
The scientists measured levels of myelin, a component of white matter that covers, protects and speeds up the connections in the brain.
The researchers then interviewed family members on measures of cognition and impulsivity, and they compared how career length and age of beginning tackle football related to levels of myelin, and how myelin levels related to cognition and impulsivity.
In addition to more years of football played, the researchers found that starting tackle football at a younger age was also related to more white matter loss, independent of career length.
“These results suggest that existing tests that measure white matter injury during life, including imaging and blood tests, may help to clarify potential causes of changes in behavior and cognition in former contact sport athletes,” said co-author Michael Alosco, associate professor of neurology.
“We can also use these tests to better understand how repeated hits to the head from football and other sports lead to long term injury to the white matter,” Alosco added.
The researchers said they hope these findings help reinforce the idea that more needs to be done to protect the brains of athletes, especially children, from repeated hits to the head.
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