Reuters (7/31, Rapaport) reports researchers found that “the volume of damaged white matter in” female soccer players who frequently headed the ball “was five times greater than it was for” their male counterparts. The researchers used diffusion tensor imaging to examine the brains of “49 male and 49 female amateur soccer players who reported a similar number of headings during the previous year.” The findings were published in Radiology.
NPR (7/31, Watson) reports lead author Michael Lipton, a neuroradiologist and neuroscientist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, said, “The most important finding here is that we see that in women’s brains, actually looking at brain tissue, there seems to be a greater sensitivity to repetitive, very low-level injury relative to men.”
Related Links:
— “Soccer headings may damage women’s brains more, “Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, July 31, 2018.