College Football Players have Smaller Hippocampal Volume

New study shows that football players have lower brain volume.

The study, conducted by researchers at The University of Tulsa (TU), found that college football players, with or without a history of head injuries, have lower volume in hippocampus.

Hippocampus is associated with memory and emotion. It also showed the longer a person played football, the lower was the brain volume.

Previous studies have shown that sports accounts for nearly 10 percent of head and spine related injuries. Researchers have also found that retired football players have higher risk suffering from poor mental health due to repeated trauma to the brain.

"Other studies have evaluated the effects on older athletes such as retired NFL players, but no one has studied 20-year-olds until now - and the results were remarkable and surprising," said Patrick S.F. Bellgowan, director of cognitive neuroscience for LIBR and a faculty member at TU. "Our next step is to assess what caused this difference in hippocampus size."

Mild injuries to the brain or concussion during sports can damage the brain that can take a while to recover. People who have had repeated concussions have been known to have severe brain damage.

The study was based on data from 50 college football players, of which 25 had a history of concussion. The research also included 25 other students who didn't play the game. Participants underwent brain scans and researchers looked at real-time differences in hippocampal volume and cognitive performance, according to a news release.

The team found an inverse association between hippocampal volume and reaction. Additionally, long-term players had slower reaction time.

"This research brings us one step closer to understanding the connection between contact sports and brain injury," said David Polanski, TU's head athletic trainer and co-author of the study.

The study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.