UPFRONT | News CONCUSSIONS Brain differences seen in NCAA footballers: study A small U.S. study of college football players found that the areas of their brains that control memory were smaller than average, especially if they had suffered concussions. But more research is needed to deter-mine if the differences mean they’re headed for problems down the road. The study of players from the National Collegiate Athletic Association is only preliminary, but the differences were seen in a part of the brain affected by a destruc-tive disease linked with head blows and found in autopsies of some former NFL players. The college players studied did just as well on tests of mental function, including memory, as a healthy control group of college athletes in non-contact sports, seahorse-shaped region behind the front part of the brain. In foot-ball players who’d had concus-sions, the right part of the hip-pocampus was 26 per cent smaller on average than in the control group. In football players without concussions, it was 17 per cent smaller. Similar differences were seen in the left part of the hippocampus. The study involved 25 Division 1 football players and 25 college ath-letes in non-contact sports including long-distance running. Results were released in May in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, a University of Michigan sports neurologist, said the research is intriguing but that more work needs to be done. -The Associated Press although those in the football group who’d played the longest had slower reaction times. It’s unknown when the brain differences occurred and it’s pos-sible the football players were born with them, said study co-author Patrick Bellgowan, a neuroscientist at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Still, because head trauma is among conditions thought to cause the affected brain region to shrink, the study results are “a flag that concussions need to be taken seriously,” Bellgowan said. The differences were found in the hippocampus, a small BackSwing ‘14 Wednesday, September 10, 2014 DiamondBack Golf Club Registration $300 per player A special tenth anniversary jacket will be given to all participants this year. Please register by June 27, 2014 to be guaranteed your size. CMCC’s 10 th annual For information visit www.cmcc.ca/BackSwing or contact [email protected] or 416 482 2340 ext. 200 Jacket Sponsor Guerriero Enterprises Inc. Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College Silver Sponsors Coffley Adelt, Investment Guild, ObusForme Bronze Sponsors Ascenta, Ernie Wolkin Chartered Accountant, Davis Drywall Systems, Footmaxx, MIT Consulting, North York Healthcare Associates, North York Rehabilitation Centre Corp., Ontario Blue Cross and Paul Boyer Insurance, Pace Law Firm, Paper Dimension, The Co-operators, The Orthotic Group Lunch Sponsors Drs. Decina, Kim, Stern and Tibbles www.canadianchiropractor.ca Media Sponsor Canadian Chiropractor Magazine June 2014 Canadian Chiropractor 15
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