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Heading A Soccer Ball Alters Brain Chemistry, Study Says
- June 25, 2025
- Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
Heading the ball can be a dramatic, game-changing play during a soccer match.
Unfortunately, soccer players pay a price every time they make this move, a new study argues.
Bouncing a soccer ball off your head disrupts a person’s brain even if it doesn’t result in a concussion, researchers reported June 18 in Sports Medicine-Open.
MRI scans of soccer players reveal that heading subtly alters chemistry and nerve function in the brain, and causes slightly elevated levels of proteins that have been associated with brain injury, researchers found.
“These findings suggest that even routine, symptom-free heading can produce subtle changes in the brain,” senior investigator Danielle McCartney, a postdoctoral research associate with the University of Sydney’s Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics, said in a news release.
“The next step is to understand whether these changes accumulate over time, and what that might mean for player health in the long run,” McCartney continued. “In the meantime, we’re adding to calls for soccer players to exercise caution and perhaps consider whether extensive heading is necessary, particularly in training.”
For the new study, researchers asked 15 male soccer players to head a ball 20 times in 20 minutes. The balls were launched at a constant speed from a machine, and each player also spent a second round kicking the ball to provide a means of comparison.
MRI scans after heading revealed altered chemistry in a region of the brain involved in body movement, as well as decreased electrical conductivity across several areas.
This suggests heading affects how the brain uses energy and how information is transmitted through white matter, the nerve tissue that connects different parts of the brain, researchers said.
Meanwhile, blood samples showed elevated levels of two proteins associated with brain injury and future dementia risk — glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and neurofilament light (NFL).
The brain changes associated with heading were much smaller than found in people with dementia or concussion, and researchers noted that none of the players showed any signs of cognitive impairment after they headed the ball.
“This study does not demonstrate heading causes dementia,” lead researcher Nathan Delang, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Queensland, said in a news release. “Our take from the higher presence of these proteins, and the study overall, is that heading the ball can cause subtle disruption to brain cells, even without obvious symptoms.”
He went on: “Elevated levels of these biomarkers indicate brain cells have been disturbed at a microstructural level. The clinical and long-term significance of such small elevations is still being studied — particularly in relation to how much, and what pattern, of exposure might lead to effects on brain structure and function.”
The researchers noted that some countries, including the U.S. and the U.K., are phasing in restrictions on heading, including banning the practice among young players.
More information
Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago has more on heading the soccer ball.
SOURCE: University of Sydney, news release, June 18, 2025
