Concussions Aren't Easily Forgotten by the Brain

Concussions are shown to have a microscopic but potentially dangerous long-term impact on an athlete's brain according to newly published research.

The research, conducted in association with the Hockey Concussion Education Project (HCEP), studied 45 college-level ice hockey players (25 men and 20 women) over the course of their athletic season. In that time 11 athletes in total sustained concussions.

Using susceptibility-weighing imaging (SWI) -- an echo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique that is designed to better identify microscopic bleeding within the human brain -- researchers found evidence that indicates that the brains of post-concussion hockey players sustain microscopic damage even two weeks after the concussive incident.

Damages observed included microscopic bleeding and  that in some cases even progressed after the initial damage from the concussion was recorded. According to the reports, while in most cases these "microbleeds" resolve themselves, the fact they persisted for so long may lead to metabolic changes in the brain that could lead to other complications.

More alarmingly, microscopic structural changes to the white matter of a concussed athlete's brain was also a common observation. White matter is the tissue that sends signals from one portion of the brain to the other and is key to how the brain learns and functions. What kind of changes these small structural changes has on the brain remains to be seen.

When releasing the study Dr. Paul Echnlin, senior co-author and leading investigator for the HCEP, stated "This study contributes to converging objective evidence concerning the acute and chronic effects of repetitive brain injury in the sports. Although future studies are warranted to further validate these initial findings, a cultural shift must be considered toward both the permitted violence that underlies many of the sport-related brain injuries and the high incidence of head impacts that occur in the games which our children play."

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