Brain Damage from Concussion Lingers in Athletes' Brains for Up to a Year After Injury

Concussion damage may persist in an athlete’s brain for at least a year, long after they have returned to their sport, according to a recent study.

College athletes with concussions showed brain changes that remained visible on brain scans up to a year after they were cleared to return to play, the researchers reported in a study published on March 12 in Neurology.

“The presence of significant and lasting brain changes after an injury reinforces concerns about the consequences of repeated concussions and the extent to which these effects accumulate over time,” said lead researcher Nathan Churchill, postdoctoral neuroscience researcher at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, Canada, in a press release.

In the study, researchers examined 187 college athletes, of whom 25 had suffered a concussion during the regular season of basketball, football, hockey, lacrosse, rugby, soccer, or volleyball.

The athletes with concussions were also compared with 27 athletes matched by factors such as gender and sport who had not suffered a concussion.

The athletes underwent MRIs before their seasons began, as well as five days, one to three months, and one year after returning to play following a concussion.

Players with concussions still showed signs of brain injury in MRIs taken an average of five days after the concussion, when they had been cleared to resume play, the results showed.

These signs of brain injury lasted up to a year later, the researchers noted.

Compared to pre-injury brain scans, players with concussions had significantly reduced blood flow in the frontoinsular cortex of the brain, a region that helps control thinking, memory, emotions, and social behavior, the researchers pointed out.

This lower blood flow decreased over time, but it was still detectable a year after the concussion.

This suggests that the clinical symptoms of a concussion, which are used to determine when a player has adequately recovered, may not be enough to protect their brain health, noted an accompanying editorial co-written by Aurore Thibaut and Géraldine Martens, concussion researchers at the University Hospital of Liège, Belgium.

“This is crucial because early return to play and incomplete recovery could have serious short- and long-term consequences, especially in young people,” the editorialists wrote.

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