football

Playing American football before age 12 is linked to long-term neuropsychiatric and cognitive problems

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Tack­le foot­ball before age 12 may boost risks of cog­ni­tive, mood dis­or­ders (Ars Technica):

“Tak­ing hard knocks ear­ly in life could shove foot­ball play­ers toward neu­ro­log­i­cal prob­lems lat­er, a new study suggests.

Among 214 for­mer ama­teur and pro­fes­sion­al male foot­ball play­ers, those who start­ed play­ing early—particularly before the age of 12—had greater risks of report­ing depres­sion and impaired behav­ioral reg­u­la­tion and exec­u­tive func­tion around their 50s, researchers found [Read more…] about Play­ing Amer­i­can foot­ball before age 12 is linked to long-term neu­ropsy­chi­atric and cog­ni­tive problems

Public Brain Health vs. Private Brain Research Funds: How the NFL tried to influence NIH studies

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How the NFL tried to manip­u­late a gov­ern­ment study on foot­ball and brain injuries (Los Ange­les Times):

“The Nation­al Insti­tutes of Health seems to have dis­cov­ered what com­mu­ni­ties across the land already know: The Nation­al Foot­ball League is an untrust­wor­thy partner.

Accord­ing to a report [Read more…] about Pub­lic Brain Health vs. Pri­vate Brain Research Funds: How the NFL tried to influ­ence NIH studies

Footballers add novelty, variety and challenge to sharpen cognitive and perceptual skills

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soccer_ballCan brain train­ing make bet­ter foot­ballers? (The Guardian):

“It sounds like a game designed for tod­dlers – throw­ing and catch­ing a ball to encour­age talk­ing – but, accord­ing to coach­es at Southamp­ton FC, brain-train­ing tech­nique Life Kinetik is the lat­est weapon in the war to stop mod­ern life ruin­ing the beau­ti­ful game [Read more…] about Foot­ballers add nov­el­ty, vari­ety and chal­lenge to sharp­en cog­ni­tive and per­cep­tu­al skills

Controversy brewing around the NFL, concussions, research funding and conflicts of interest

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dementia_pet_imagingThe NFL Needs Dis­tance From Its Brain-Injury Fund­ing (The Wall Street Journal):

“Despite its immense pop­u­lar­i­ty among spec­ta­tors and play­ers, foot­ball is fac­ing an exis­ten­tial threat due to the long-term health risks pre­sent­ed by repet­i­tive injuries to the head. A new dis­ease has even been asso­ci­at­ed with these injuries—chronic trau­mat­ic encephalopa­thy, or CTE, the sub­ject of [Read more…] about Con­tro­ver­sy brew­ing around the NFL, con­cus­sions, research fund­ing and con­flicts of interest

New $3m European-Israeli collaboration to build brain training system and enhance football (soccer) players’ game intelligence

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The ini­tial pilot, fund­ed under the EU Hori­zon 2020 frame­work and to be com­plet­ed by 2017, will start with lead­ing Euro­pean soc­cer acad­e­mies includ­ing Ajax Ams­ter­dam, PSV Eind­hoven, AZ Alk­maar and FC Freiburg, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Sports Uni­ver­si­ty in Cologne, Ger­many. [Read more…] about New $3m Euro­pean-Israeli col­lab­o­ra­tion to build brain train­ing sys­tem and enhance foot­ball (soc­cer) play­ers’ game intelligence

Beyond concussions: football-related hits impact brain’s white matter

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football-playersBrains of Foot­ball Play­ers Don’t Ful­ly Recov­er Dur­ing Off­sea­son, Study Finds (Edu­ca­tion Week):

“Some foot­ball play­ers’ brains may not ful­ly recov­er from hits endured even after six months of no-con­tact rest dur­ing the off­sea­son… imag­ing scans showed changes [Read more…] about Beyond con­cus­sions: foot­ball-relat­ed hits impact brain’s white matter