Structural Brain Differences in Professional Australian Rules Footballers Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: When Head Size Matters
Date
Authors
Lee, Jackson M
Pardoe, Heath R
Parker, Donna M
Pedersen, Mangor
Makdissi, Michael
Abbott, David F
Jackson, Graeme D
Mito, Remika
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Abstract
Introduction Concussion, a type of mild traumatic brain injury common in collision sports, is thought to be associated with subtle brain changes that are not visually appreciable on conventional neuroimaging. This study quantified differences in subcortical volumes from structural MRI between 31 recently concussed professional Australian rules footballers (within 3 months of injury) and 37 healthy, non-athlete controls. Methods T1-weighted MRI were acquired at 3 T and processed using FreeSurfer. Hippocampal and amygdala volumes were normalized by estimated total intracranial volume (eTIV). Longitudinal changes were assessed in a subset of 12 footballers with follow-up MRI. Cortical thickness differences were also explored using vertex-wise analysis. Results Footballers exhibited lower proportional hippocampal and amygdala volumes, and reduced cortical thickness compared to controls. However, after exploring different methodological approaches for estimating intracranial volume (ICV), volumetric findings were seen to vary based on the ICV estimation method used for normalization. Discussion This study demonstrates subtle, likely persistent neuroanatomical differences between professional Australian rules footballers and non-athlete controls. Importantly, we advocate for cautious clinical interpretation of volumetric MRI findings considering methodological variabilities, particularly when inherent cohort differences (such as ICV) may bias results, and provide recommendations for future studies that examine volumetric changes in concussion cohorts.Description
Keywords
5202 Biological Psychology, 52 Psychology, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Basic Behavioral and Social Science, Brain Disorders, Clinical Research, Physical Injury - Accidents and Adverse Effects, Traumatic Head and Spine Injury, Biomedical Imaging, Behavioral and Social Science, Neurosciences, Neurological, 1103 Clinical Sciences, 1109 Neurosciences, 1701 Psychology, 3202 Clinical sciences, 3209 Neurosciences, 5202 Biological psychology
Source
Frontiers in Neurology, ISSN: 1664-2295 (Print); 1664-2295 (Online), Frontiers Media SA, 17, 1701097-. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2026.1701097
Rights statement
Copyright © 2026 Lee, Pardoe, Parker, Pedersen, Makdissi, Abbott, Jackson and Mito. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.