Changes in peripheral blood and cognitive performance after nonconcussive head impacts in elite female soccer players
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Exposure to repetitive head impacts (RHI) has been shown to be associated with cognitive impairment and markers of neurodegeneration in professional male soccer players. However, data on the effects of RHI in female players are very limited. In this exploratory study, we investigated changes in blood biomarkers along with the cognitive status of elite female soccer players and compared the effect of RHI with outcomes in male players. In a cohort study, elite female soccer players (age 16–41 years) performed training without heading the ball (n = 36) and training including heading (n = 30). Athletes were evaluated for the parameters of physical activity (heart rate) and neuropsychological testing (focused attention and cognitive flexibility) before and 1 h after each training. The levels of plasma tau, pTau181, pTau217 and microRNAs were determined at four timepoints: before training, 1 h, 24 h, and 48 h after each training session. Parameters in females were compared with control male players (n = 32). The levels of tau, pTau181 and pTau217 are significantly increased in the plasma of female soccer players 1 hour after physical exercise (tau, 1.4-fold; pTau181, 1.3-fold; pTau217, 1.2-fold) and repetitive head impacts (tau, 1.2-fold; pTau181, 1.3-fold; pTau217, 1.3-fold) compared to pre-training levels. The ratio of pTau181 to tau fold change is significantly higher 1 hour after heading and remains elevated specifically in the heading group even after 48 h. The analysis of deregulated microRNAs in plasma reveals enrichment of neuroprotective pathways after heading training. Female soccer players show worse cognitive functions after heading compared to exercise and also compared to male soccer players. RHIs may lead to acute disbalance of tau and phosphorylated tau in plasma, and are associated with short-term decline in cognitive performance and neuroprotective pathways in elite female soccer players. The sexual dimorphism in response to RHI may reflect biological risk factors potentially relevant to the different degree of susceptibility to neurological disorders in females and males in later life. Majority of neuroscience research is conducted on male subjects, creating a gap in the knowledge. Here we investigated the effect of repetitive non-concussive head impacts (RHI) in elite female soccer players. The athletes were evaluated for the parameters of physical activity, cognition and levels of plasma tau protein which are known biomarkers of neurodegeneration. Our data demonstrate that repetitive heading of the ball is associated with biochemical alterations, reduction in focused attention, and cognitive flexibility. Here we also show that females are more sensitive to head impacts when compared to males and that the RHI exposure is associated with neuroprotective signaling. These findings link specific molecular pathways, potentially operating in the early stage of brain diseases. Deeper exploration of these pathways could be a promising approach to identify new biomarkers and therapeutic targets in the treatment of neurodegeneration. Cente et al. investigate the acute effects of mild repetitive head impacts in female soccer players. Findings reveal that female players are more sensitive to head impacts compared to males, as manifested by short-term decline in cognitive performance, altered plasma tau protein profile, and initiation of neuroprotective pathways.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".