The aftermath of concussions – breaking latest news

For many years there has been discussion in the United States about whether it repeats them

concussions (forceful blows or jolts that can momentarily alter the nerve structures that control brain function)
experienced by American football players during their professional careers can lead to serious brain problems. In particular they can cause the’chronic traumatic encephalopathy

(CTE), a syndrome caused by a series of concussions which can lead to attention deficit, dementia, disorientation, memory loss, depression, speech difficulties, personality alteration. The US Football League only in 2016 admitted the link between head trauma and brain damage. An exposé film, Shadow Zone with Will Smith, told the true story of neuropathologist Bennet Omalu, who tried in every way to bring CTE to public attention.

The work joins another research published a few days ago on Journal of Neurotrauma who concluded that experiencing as few as three or more concussions, even mild ones, can lead to cognitive problems decades later. And just one moderate to severe concussion (involved in automobile accidents, contact injuries, sports injuries) had a long-term impact on brain function, including memory problems. This work did not involve American football players but the general population (over 15,000) between 50 and 90 years of age. The researcher who carried out the work, Vanessa Raymont of the University of Oxford explained in a Press release: The more times you hurt your brain in your life, the worse your brain function could be as you age.

The comparison between former players and non-players

Of the more than 350 former National Football League (NFL) players who were studied in the first cited work an average of 29 years after their careers ended, those who reported experiencing concussion symptoms scored worse scores on assessments of episodic memory, attention span, processing speed, and vocabulary. The follow-up analysis compared the former players to more than 5,000 male volunteers in the general population who did not play football professionally. it emerged that cognitive performance was worse for ex-gamers than for non-gamers. While younger former gamers outperformed non-gamers in some tests, the older retired gamers performed worse on cognitive tasks than the control group. The most common cognitive deficits are problems with attention, ability to complete complex tasks, organize thoughts and activities efficiently.
According to the researchers, these findings add further evidence of the impact a professional football career can have on theacceleration of cognitive ageing.

The long-term consequences

known that in the hours and days following a concussion people experience some cognitive impairment and brain function is temporarily impaired. However the long-term impact has so far led to mixed results – he says Laura Germinesenior author of the study, Harvard School of Medicine professor of psychiatry – but the results of this survey, the largest of its kind, show that professional football players can experience cognitive difficulties associated with career head injuries even many years after retiring from professional activity.

I test

The 353 former NFL athletes completed neuropsychological tests lasting an hour through an online platform remotely and completed tests on the evaluation of processing speed, facial-spatial memory, memory and vocabulary use. They were asked if they had experienced any of these symptoms after a blow to the head in match or training: headache, nausea, dizziness, loss of consciousness, memory problems, disorientation, confusion, seizures, vision problems or feeling unsteady standing. They were also asked if a doctor had ever diagnosed them with a concussion.

Poor cognitive performance was not always associated with diagnosed concussions but for the researchers many head injuries would not have been properly diagnosed (perhaps limited to the least severe head injury) at the time due to a lack of knowledge and awareness, with an underestimation of symptoms by players. Comparing the performance of the retired players with the control group composed of 5,086 men, we saw that cognitive performance was generally worse among former players, particularly older ones. According to the researchers, these data suggest that playing American football could accelerate age-related cognitive decline and lead to more problems in later life. Another key proposition was that younger ex-players would be “spared” than older players for greater injury awareness and management. However, further investigations are needed to measure the cognitive performance of athletes and non-athletes over the life course: the limitation of the work is the lack of data on cognition before head injuries.