Millions of children play American football, however, youth players are largely absent from studies addressing the public health questions about safety and concussion. Furthermore, many studies investigating effects of sports-related head impact exposure on brain structure have focused on white matter, with few evaluating the effects on gray matter (GM) structure. In this study, we combined measures of head impact biomechanics and brain MRI to investigate the effects of repetitive non-concussive exposure on gray matter volume and microstructural integrity. We demonstrate statistically significant relationships between exposure metrics and MRI measures of GM diffusion characteristics after one season of youth football.
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