It doesn't take suffering a concussion to alter the brain of an athlete, researchers at Western University have discovered.
The study found a regular season of gameplay can lead to brain changes similar to those seen in concussion patients, although the changes are less severe.
Researchers examined metabolite levels in the brains of female varsity rugby players at the university at the beginning of their season, after suffering a concussion, and again at the end of the season.
"What we found is that the players that had suffered a concussion during the season had a large reduction in the level of a metabolite called glutamine,” said Robert Bartha, scientist at Western’s Robarts Research Institute. “We also showed that players that didn’t have a concussion had a similar but smaller reduction of this metabolite called glutamine, when we looked at their baseline measures compared to their after-season measures.”
The naturally occurring amino acid is vital to the central nervous system, providing fuel for the brain and muscles.
“Glutamine is also a byproduct of glucose metabolism, so lower glutamine could be the result of lower glucose metabolism. Under some conditions it can also be used as an energy substrate, so if the brain needs a lot of energy, it can use some of the glutamine to power the cells,” said Bartha.
In players who suffered a concussion, researchers found the brain changes continued after clinical scores for concussion had returned to normal and athletes were cleared to return to play.
Western's female varsity rugby team was selected for the study because women in sports tend to be under reported in medical literature.
"We followed this team for five seasons and that allowed us to collect data on over 50 individuals, which included over 20 concussions across 15 individual players," said PhD candidate Amy Schranz.
Researcher are hopeful the findings could help to more accurately assess brain recovery in concussion patients.
The study was published in the January edition of the journal Human Brain Mapping.