In this day and age, football has become an integral part of the high school experience. Whether attending games or even being part of the team, it is a big factor contributing to the culture and excitement of these four academic years. It also provides an amazing opportunity for football players to gain scholarships, fame, and important teamwork and life skills. While encouraging teens to engage in this sport is a good thing, there is a common myth that this can lead to mental health issues.
In this week's Neuroscience Seminar (NEUR 300), our discussion assignment was based on Dr. Caitlin M. Hudac's research, “Dynamic Cognitive Inhibition in the Context of Frustration: Increasing Racial Representation of Adolescent Athletes Using Mobile community-engaged EEG Methods.” In her research, her team explored the way these young athletes were affected by frustration in their ability to block out thoughts that may distract them as they play. This also contributed to the racial representation of these athletes in the case of brain injuries related to sports. To do this, the researchers used electroencephalogram (EEG) technology (for this experiment, they used a special glue designed for the different hair textures of their participants) to measure 23 high school football players’ brains as they set them up to do tasks that made them frustrated. They then used a method called the “Go-No-Go”, in which they gave the participants tasks that they constantly changed the rules of to irritate the participants. The football players were tested before and after a football season, and after studying the EEG data, the researchers found that when these participants were frustrated, their ability to focus on their gameplay completely was a lot less than before. However, when it came to how strongly they reacted, those participants who had previous head injuries were less sensitive, and other players who had histories of mental health struggles had strong reactions as well.
Not only did this research highlight the importance of mental and emotional health, but it also allowed for an underrepresented population to be recognized. Thankfully, in the long run, high school footballers were found to have little difference in their development of mental health and cognition when compared to those who had never played the sport in high school. Deshpande SK, Hasegawa RB, Rabinowitz AR, et al. (2017) discovered this through a study in which they evaluated men who went to high school in the 50’s. They focused on men who graduated from high school in Wisconsin in the year 1957, and measured their depression, anger, anxiety, use of alcohol, and aggression using different tests and scales. After observing the data, they concluded that the participants who did play football in high school in ‘57 had no association with any of the factors they measured for at their age, despite the risk for injuries they faced. Football may temporarily alter the brain as the players undergo tough expectations and nerves for their game, however, seeing as it does not produce any worrying behaviors or disorders, it doesn’t seem to be an alarming detail.
So, let your kids try out for football. You never know what opportunities it may bring for them.
Sources
Deshpande SK, Hasegawa RB, Rabinowitz AR, et al. Association of Playing High School Football With Cognition and Mental Health Later in Life. JAMA Neurol. 2017;74(8):909–918. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2017.1317 Hudac, C. M., Wallace, J. S., Ward, V. R., Friedman, N. R., Delfin, D., & Newman, S. D. (2022). Dynamic cognitive inhibition in the context of frustration: Increasing racial representation of adolescent athletes using mobile community-engaged EEG methods. Frontiers in Neurology, 13, 918075. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2022.918075
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