Awareness of sport-related concussions in soccer has gained recent attention in the medical community. Interestingly, purposeful heading-a unique yet strategic and inherent part of soccer-involves repeated subconcussive blows to the head. We divided 210 female interscholastic soccer players into control (CON [never concussed]) and experimental (EXP [previously concussed]) groups. We assessed neurocognitive performance using the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics computer program before and after the players' competitive season. Headers were recorded at all sanctioned matches. Data were analyzed using a series of one-way analyses of covariance and t tests. Both groups essentially played in the same number of games (EXP = 16.1 vs. CON = 16.1) and had an equal number of total headers (EXP = 24.9 vs. CON = 24.3). Additionally, headers per game were surprisingly low in both groups (1.4 in EXP vs. 1.3 in CON). Unexpectedly, there were no significant differences between the EXP and CON groups across all dependent variables measured (p > .05). This study suggests that although previously concussed players involve themselves in purposeful heading (i.e., subconcussive insults) throughout a competitive season, there appear to be no negative consequences on neuropsychological test performance or concussion-related symptoms. Additional research is needed to determine what may result during the course of a playing career.
Keywords: ANAM; head injury; neuropsychological; purposeful heading.