Scientific American: Psychology
From the Pages Activity

HEADING OFF INJURY

Female soccer players are more vulnerable to brain damage than males are.

Repeatedly heading a soccer ball exacts a toll on an athlete’s brain. But this cost—measured by the volume of brain cells damaged—is five times greater for women than for men, new research suggests.

The study provides a biological explanation for why women report more severe symptoms and longer recovery times than men following brain injuries in sports. Previously some researchers had dismissed female players’ complaints because there was little physiological evidence for the disparity, says Michael Lipton, a neuroscientist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a coauthor of the paper.

Lipton’s team used magnetic resonance imaging to peer into the skulls of 98 adult amateur soccer players—half of them female and half male—who headed the ball with varying frequency during the prior year. For women, eight of the brain’s signal-carrying white matter regions showed structural deterioration, compared with just three such regions in men (damage increased with the number of reported headers). Furthermore, female athletes in the study suffered damage to an average of about 2,100 cubic millimeters of brain tissue, compared with an average of just 400 cubic millimeters in the male athletes.

Lipton does not yet know the cause of these sex differences, but he notes two possibilities. Women may suffer stronger whiplash from a cranial blow because they generally have less muscle mass than men to stabilize the neck and skull. Alternatively, a dip in progesterone, a hormone that protects against swelling in the brain, could heighten women’s vulnerability to brain injury during certain phases of their menstrual cycle.

Thomas Kaminski, a sports physiologist at the University of Delaware, who was not involved in the work, calls it “truly groundbreaking.” The research is unique in highlighting the cumulative effect of repetitive knocks on the skull, as opposed to major traumatic injuries, he says. “Very few of these subjects had a history of concussion.”

Researchers are now eager to determine if these white matter changes carry long-term cognitive consequences. Until more is known, Kaminski advocates a proactive approach to limiting the damage caused by headers . . . he met with U.S. Soccer Federation officials to craft science-based guidelines for practicing the move in youth leagues…

Daniel Ackerman. Reproduced with permission. Copyright © 2018 Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.

Quiz

1A potential factor in female soccer players’ greater vulnerability to brain damage from heading the ball is a dip in blank during certain phases of their menstrual cycle which protects against swelling in the brain.
2Compared to men, measures of the volume of brain cells damaged by individual players repeatedly heading a soccer ball were found to be approximately blank for female players.
3Another factor that may contribute to female soccer players experiencing more severe brain damage is that female players:
4Thomas Kaminski, sports physiologist, called Lipton’s 2018 study on gender differences in the extent of head injuries among soccer players, “truly groundbreaking” due to its unique focus on the:
5Which brain imaging technique did Lipton and colleagues (2018) use to view the skulls of the 98 participants?
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Chapter 1. Chapter 3

From the pages

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1.1 Quiz

1.

_max_tries:1 _feedback_correct: Correct. _feedback_incorrect: Incorrect.

A potential factor in female soccer players’ greater vulnerability to brain damage from heading the ball is a dip in __________ during certain phases of their menstrual cycle which protects against swelling in the brain.

A.
B.
C.
D.

2.

_max_tries:1 _feedback_correct: Correct. _feedback_incorrect: Incorrect.

Compared to men, measures of the volume of brain cells damaged by individual players repeatedly heading a soccer ball were found to be approximately ________ for female players.

A.
B.
C.
D.

3.

_max_tries:1 _feedback_correct: Correct. _feedback_incorrect: Incorrect.

Another factor that may contribute to female soccer players experiencing more severe brain damage is that female players:

A.
B.
C.
D.

4.

_max_tries:1 _feedback_correct: Correct. _feedback_incorrect: Incorrect.

Thomas Kaminski, sports physiologist, called Lipton’s 2018 study on gender differences in the extent of head injuries among soccer players, “truly groundbreaking” due to its unique focus on the:

A.
B.
C.
D.

5.

_max_tries:1 _feedback_correct: Correct. _feedback_incorrect: Incorrect.

Which brain imaging technique did Lipton and colleagues (2018) use to view the skulls of the 98 participants?

A.
B.
C.
D.