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Cortical thinning in former professional soccer players

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Abstract

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. Soccer players are at high risk for repetitive subconcussive head impact when heading the ball. Whether this leads to long-term alterations of the brain’s structure associated with cognitive decline remains unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate cortical thickness in former professional soccer players using high-resolution structural MR imaging. Fifteen former male professional soccer players (mean age 49.3 [SD 5.1] years) underwent high-resolution structural 3 T MR imaging, as well as cognitive testing. Fifteen male, age-matched former professional non-contact sport athletes (mean age 49.6 [SD 6.4] years) served as controls. Group analyses of cortical thickness were performed using voxel-based statistics. Soccer players demonstrated greater cortical thinning with increasing age compared to controls in the right inferolateral-parietal, temporal, and occipital cortex. Cortical thinning was associated with lower cognitive performance as well as with estimated exposure to repetitive subconcussive head impact. Neurocognitive evaluation revealed decreased memory performance in the soccer players compared to controls. The association of cortical thinning and decreased cognitive performance, as well as exposure to repetitive subconcussive head impact, further supports the hypothesis that repetitive subconcussive head impact may play a role in early cognitive decline in soccer players. Future studies are needed to elucidate the time course of changes in cortical thickness as well as their association with impaired cognitive function and possible underlying neurodegenerative process.

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Abbreviations

BIS:

Barrett Impulsivity Score

BESS:

Balance error scoring system

ROCF:

Rey osterrieth complex figure

RSHI:

Repetitive subconcussive head impact

TMT A:

Trailmaking Test A

TMT B:

Trailmaking Test B

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Funding

This study was supported by the Else Kröner-Fresenius Stiftung, Germany (IK). This work was also partially funded by grants from The Department of Defense (X81XWH-07-CC-CSDoD; RZ, MES) and a VA Merit Award (MES). Michael Mayinger was supported by the Petraeic Legate foundation, Germany.

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Compliance with ethical standards

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible institutional committee on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, and the applicable revisions. Written informed consent was obtained from all study participants prior to inclusion in the study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

    Inga K. Koerte, Michael Mayinger, Marc Muehlmann, Alexander P. Lin, Boris-Stephan Rauchmann & Martha E. Shenton

  2. Institute for Clinical Radiology, Ludwig-Maximilian-University, Munich, Germany

    Inga K. Koerte, Michael Mayinger, Marc Muehlmann, David Kaufmann, Denise Steffinger, Barbara Fisch, Boris-Stephan Rauchmann, Birgit Ertl-Wagner & Maximilian Reiser

  3. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatic and Psychotherapy, Ludwig-Maximilian-University, Munich, Germany

    Inga K. Koerte & Marc Muehlmann

  4. Department of Radiology, Charité Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    David Kaufmann

  5. Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

    Alexander P. Lin & Martha E. Shenton

  6. Department of Pediatric Neurology and Developmental Medicine, Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilian-University, Munich, Germany

    Stefanie Immler & Florian R. Heinen

  7. Department of Psychiatry, Ludwig-Maximilian-University, Munich, Germany

    Susanne Karch

  8. Departments of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Anatomy & Neurobiology, Boston University Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

    Robert A. Stern

  9. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Ross Zafonte

  10. VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA, USA

    Martha E. Shenton

Authors
  1. Inga K. Koerte
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  2. Michael Mayinger
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  3. Marc Muehlmann
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  4. David Kaufmann
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  5. Alexander P. Lin
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  6. Denise Steffinger
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  7. Barbara Fisch
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  8. Boris-Stephan Rauchmann
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  9. Stefanie Immler
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  10. Susanne Karch
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  11. Florian R. Heinen
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  12. Birgit Ertl-Wagner
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  13. Maximilian Reiser
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  14. Robert A. Stern
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  15. Ross Zafonte
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  16. Martha E. Shenton
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Inga K. Koerte.

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Koerte, I.K., Mayinger, M., Muehlmann, M. et al. Cortical thinning in former professional soccer players. Brain Imaging and Behavior 10, 792–798 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-015-9442-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-015-9442-0

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