Former soccer players show brain changes but no cognitive decline, researchers find

LONDON, July 12 : Retired British professional soccer players showed structural brain differences and high rates of anxiety and depression but no signs of cognitive decline in a study looking to establish if repetitive impacts like heading the ball affect the risk of developing dementia.

The study, by researchers at Imperial College London, included 142 former players aged between 30 and 60 and compared them to 56 similarly aged healthy people with no history of contact sports, military service, or past concussions.

In addition to using questionnaires and tests to measure cognition, researchers analyzed structural MRI brain scans from a qualifying subset of 124 players and 40 people in the control group to check for regional differences in grey matter volume.

The authors, who presented the study at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference on Sunday, said their research is part of a major push by scientists to treat repetitive head impacts as a potential modifiable risk factor for dementia in late life, similar to how doctors treat high blood pressure or cholesterol.

It lays the groundwork for what is intended to be a long-term study of these players, whom researchers plan to monitor every two years.

"The field is taking a more holistic view of brain health and dementia risk," said senior author Thomas Parker, a consultant neurologist at Imperial College London.

SIMILAR SCORES ON MEMORY AND THINKING TESTS

After adjusting for factors like age and education, the former players scored as well as expected on memory and thinking tests, showing no significant differences compared to the healthy control group.

Athletes reported much higher rates of mental health struggles, with 31 per cent meeting the threshold for