Heading ball impairs player’s memory, study finds

HEADING the ball is not good for the brain. Even when the heads of soccer players are exposed to collisions or blows too frequently, these slight, but recurring concussions result in attention deficit in the long term.

This is suggested by a Croatian study, which was presented at the 1st Congress of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) in Berlin, Germany and published in Neurology and Medical News Today.
Soccer players do less well in cognitive tests

Dr. Boris Radic of the Medical Faculty of the University of Zagreb and his team examined 70 persons with no soccer experience, and compared them to an equally large control group of amateur soccer players who played in a veteran league.

This showed the following: “Non-soccer players did significantly better in those cognitive tests which required a high reaction speed and longer attention. Soccer players also lagged behind in all other cognitive tests, with one exception: they did better when the objective was to make rapid decisions,” Radic reported.

Furthermore, the group of researchers was able to determine changes in the forehead and temple regions of the brain (frontotemporal region) in the soccer players by means of electroencephalography (EEGs).