Neuropsychological assessment of soccer players.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to neuropsychologically assess the attention and concentration of soccer players. Sixty-two male volunteer subjects, 31 soccer players, and 31 tennis players were recruited from local colleges. The Raven Progressive Matrices, Symbol Digit Modalities Test, Perceptual Speed Test, and Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test were administered. There were no significant differences found between the two groups on these tests. There was, however, within the soccer player group, a significant negative correlation between number of games played and performance on the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task. Also, a significantly greater number of soccer than tennis players reported experiencing headaches, blurred vision, dizziness, and passing out after a game.

Examining the Relationship Between Purposeful Heading in Soccer and Computerized Neuropsychological Test Performance

“…Our short-term data seem to support the growing body of evidence that soccer heading does not appear to have acute effects on balance (Broglio et al, 2004;Mangus et al, 2004;Putukian et al, 2000;Rasmussen, Kaminski, Horodyski, Powers, & Gearhart, 2002;Schmitt et al, 2004) or cognition (Abreau et al, 1990;Guskiewicz et al, 2002;Janda et al, 2002;Rasmussen et al, 2002). Logically, one can point to the fact that girls don't head the ball enough during a soccer match to influence neurocognition negatively.…”

“…Unfortunately, their method of determining heading incidence was based on subject recall, a method prone to recall bias (Coughlin, 1990). In fact, in most previous reports examining the chronic neuropsychological effects in soccer players, the method of heading exposure was based on self-report or opinion (Abreau, Templer, Schuyler, & Hutchison, 1990;Matser, Kessels, Jordan, Lezak, & Troost, 1998;Matser et al, 1999;Matser, Kessels, Lezak, & Troost, 2001;Tysvaer & Lochen, 1991). We argue that unless a more accurate account of heading exposures is used, it will remain unclear whether or not soccer heading is detrimental in either the short or long term.…”

The neuropsychological impact of sports-related concussion: A meta-analysis

“…The overall effect (d ) of "exposure" as measured by examining the correlation between length of participation and neuropsychological functioning was .71 ( p , .05) based on four effect-size estimates, Q (3) 5 32, p , .05. In these studies, exposure was determined by number of boxing bouts and0or length of career (Drew et al, 1986;Murelius & Haglund, 1991), or frequency of heading in soccer (Abreau et al, 2000;Downs & Abwender, 2002). As there were so few of these correlational studies, they were not examined any further.…”

Relationship of soccer heading to computerized neurocognitive performance and symptoms among female and male youth soccer players

“…Although most studies were unable to isolate heading as a causative agent, some were able to associate greater selfreports of subjective symptoms to heading in soccer players [5,16,17]. For example, Abreau and colleagues [16] concluded that the presence of subjective symptoms, such as headaches, dizziness, and blurred vision, strongly differentiated soccer athletes from their matched controls. More recent research has supported soccer heading as a contributor to cognitive decrements [5,18,19].…”