There’s considerable discussion regarding how football players’ brains are affected by minor, repetitive collisions that occur throughout a game, not just from the hits that result in concussions. But a new study out of Indiana University suggests that football players’ brain activity may appear altered because of brain reorganization that occurs when mastering hand-eye coordinations unique to contact sports, and not necessarily because of subconcussive hits.
The study took 21 football players and 19 cross-country runners and scanned their brains using fMRI. The football players did not already have a history of concussions. Eleven students who were not athletes were also studied.