There is growing concern that contact sport athletes are exposed to repeated head injuries that could have long-term effects, such as post-concussion syndrome and a form of dementia called chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

This study uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to compare the brains of elite rugby players with control groups who do not play sport and who do not play a collision sport. 

While this is a small study, it provides preliminary evidence of changes to brain structure in a group of elite rugby players. These findings highlight the need for larger studies of more athletes with a longer follow-up to validate and understand these changes.

We are currently establishing the sports brain bank initiative as part of the Neurological Foundation Human Brain Bank at the Centre for Brain Research in Auckland. The findings of this study by Zimmerman et al, are very informative to our work investigating the presence of these brain changes in post-mortem human tissue.