Alana Holmberg for The New York Times
MELBOURNE, Australia — Australian rules football is one the world’s most violent sports. Thirty-six players careen across a massive field, where they are exposed to blindside hits and errant elbows, bruising shoulders and airborne knees. Their protection is a mouthpiece and sometimes a padded cap. Collisions can be cringe-inducing. Concussions are common.
So when retired players in their 30s and 40s started complaining about memory loss, struggles with paying attention and anger management, Alan Pearce tried to help. A neurophysiologist, he began to measure the former players’ brain waves to determine if their brains were functioning properly.