"Soccer Heading May Be Worse For Women " - Judy George
Women may experience more extensive changes in brain tissue after repetitive soccer heading, a neuroimaging analysis of amateur athletes suggests. "This study adds to a growing body of literature pointing to biological differences in concussion risk and response between men and women," said Kristen Dams-O'Connor, PhD, associate professor of rehabilitation medicine and neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and co-director of the Brain Injury Research Center of Mount Sinai, who was not involved in the research. “If women experience greater cumulative consequences of sub-concussive head trauma as suggested in this paper, then over time, the threshold for sustaining a concussion – or the force required to result in a clinical concussion – is lowered,” she said. “Similarly, if the brain microstructure is already altered by sub-clinical, sub-concussive head trauma, a concussion would understandably result in more significant symptoms.”
- Kristen Dams-O’Connor, PhD, Associate Professor, Rehabilitation Medicine, Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Co-Director, The Brain Injury Research Center of Mount Sinai