Football is more than just a sport in American culture. Through football, many people find community–from students and families gathering together for Friday night high school football games to hard-core (often life-long) NFL fans gathering to watch their favorite teams on Sunday nights. Yet, in all of the excitement, the risks of participating in a contact sport like football are often overlooked. Although the immediate symptoms of concussions are widely known, such as nausea, headaches, and memory issues, longer-term complications, such as lessened impulse control and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, are lesser known or not often acknowledged.
In the research study “Dynamic cognitive inhibition in the context of frustration: Increasing racial representation of adolescent athletes using mobile community-engaged EEG methods,” Dr. Hudac used electroencephalography (EEG) to observe how frustration, a type of cognitive inhibition, impacted impulsivity. In the study, participants underwent frustration inductions both pre-season and post-season, and their cognitive inhibition was evaluated using EEG. The results showed student athletes who previously had a concussion (or experienced migraines) had lower levels of impulse control and cognitive inhibition. In addition, Dr. Hudac’s study included community-centered and engaged research methods as well as increased representation of Black participants in EEG studies.
Dr. Hudac’s findings are correlated to the symptoms of CTE, which is unable to be diagnosed until after death. In a study at Boston University, the brains of 152 athletes who participated in contact sports (and passed away before the age of thirty) were examined. When examining the brains of these athletes, researchers found that over forty percent of them showed CTE. CTE is highly linked to repeated concussions, which often occur when playing football. While CTE is often connected to retired football players in the NFL, most athletes have not played football past the high school or college level. Yet, athletes as young as seventeen years old have been found to have CTE and experience symptoms such as loss of impulse control, memory loss, and insomnia. In addition, issues with substance abuse and addiction, as well as depression and suicidal ideation, are also linked to CTE. Although CTE has been found in the brains of younger athletes, the neurons become “tangled” in the brain, similar to those who have dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
While CTE and other cognitive symptoms related to concussions are risks to consider when playing an intense contact sport (such as football), preventive measures and proper concussion care should be integrated into the sport, starting with youth athletes. Many athletes who had CTE played football in their high school and college years had no intention of playing football in the professional league. They were just playing for their love of the sport and the football community. Precautions and proper safety measures should be taken, especially in non-professional football leagues, to attempt to prevent and lessen the prevalence of CTE. For example, when an athlete of any age experiences a concussion playing football, proper care and recovery should follow. Also, athletes should not face any repercussions for sitting out to recover. In addition, younger children (before high school age) should ideally not play contact football and should participate in more non-contact sports (such as flag football) to lessen the risk of serious injury. Although there is always a risk when participating in contact sports, certain precautions can be taken to help mitigate the effects of concussions.
By Thérèse Giannini
References
Barbaro, M., Reid, W., Stern, A., Johnson, M. S., Lin, M. D., Quester, R., Lozano, M., Powell, D., Lanman, S., & Wood, C. (2023, December 19). Football’s young victims. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/19/podcasts/the-daily/youth-football-cte.html
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. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2022.918075
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