Cerebral and Cognitive Impact of Female Professional SoccerPractice

The objective of this study is to evaluate, using MRI, the microstructural consequences and the onset of any cognitive impairment in female professional soccer players at the end of their career, who have experienced repeated minor head injuries. Over the long term, these head injuries could lead to morphological lesions and have an impact on female soccer players' cognitive skills. The main evaluation criterion corresponds to the modifications found on MRI in the female professional soccer player group (diffusion tensor, cerebral perfusion, fMRI, cerebral volumetry and cortical thickness, spectroscopy, susceptibility imaging). This is an exposure/nonexposure study assessing the onset of MRI abnormalities (diffusion tensor, cerebral perfusion, fMRI, volumetry and cortical thickness, spectroscopy, susceptibility imaging) in female professional soccer players exposed to repeated mild head injuries, who are either at the end of their career or retired for approximately 10 years, compared to high-level athletes not exposed to head injuries.