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Amid concerns about the neurological and psychiatric consequences of concussion in athletes comes a study on the cognitive effects of smaller head impacts that do not cause concussion. Researchers used a novel helmet technology to measure the number and force of head impacts experienced by 214 college football and ice-hockey players (men and women) during a single season. They then compared the results of pre- and postseason neurocognitive assessments between these athletes and 45 athletes in noncontact sports (track, crew, and Nordic skiing). In contact-sport athletes, the postseason assessment occurred an average of 25 days after the last head impact.
The contact-sport athletes experienced an average of 469 hits of at least 14 g (force of …