Brain Scans Reveal Subtle Differences in Former American Football Players

A new study has shown that brain scans of former American football players reveal subtle differences in the outer grooves of the brain compared to healthy men who have not participated in contact or collision sports. The authors of the study suggest that these findings could be an indicator for identifying individuals at risk of developing chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Understanding Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a neurodegenerative disease that worsens over time and affects many who engage in contact and collision sports involving repeated head impacts. Popular contact sports include football and basketball, while common collision sports include American football, hockey, and boxing.

Despite years of research, doctors still rely on post-mortem examinations to diagnose CTE, which is often characterized by brain shrinkage and the presence of tau protein deposits in the brain’s grooves near blood vessels.

Structural Differences in Football Players’ Brains

An international team of researchers at New York University’s Langone Health led this study as part of a long-term effort to develop tests for early detection of CTE. The researchers found that football players had shallower left superior frontal grooves compared to their non-football-playing counterparts.

These grooves are located on the main sulcus running along the upper left frontal part of the brain, known from previous studies to be physiologically affected in CTE cases. The researchers note that these grooves are very small, measuring no more than 1.5 millimeters in width and 15 millimeters in depth.

Future Implications and Challenges

Although the study showed differences in brain groove structure, no differences were observed in psychological tests related to memory and learning, estimates of head injuries, or measures of tau protein accumulation in other brain scans. The researchers caution that a clinical diagnostic test is still out of reach, but if their results are validated in future studies, additional biological markers could be integrated into a comprehensive assessment of CTE risk.

Conclusion

This study points to a promising step toward developing early diagnostic tools for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, potentially allowing for the application of future treatments before the damage becomes irreversible. Although further research is needed to verify the findings, this work lays the groundwork for a better understanding of the brain structure associated with this serious disease.