In vivo Detection of Ball Heading-Associated Microstructure Changes at the Sulcal Fundi and Gyral Crowns in Amateur Soccer Players

Motivation: Neurodegenerative changes in the cortical sulci and gyri have been associated with repetitive head impacts (RHI) but have only been observed post-mortem. Goal(s): To detect sulcal and gyral extrema white matter microstructure changes in vivo. Approach: Automated image-analysis algorithms were used to average the fractional anisotropy (FA) of sulcal fundi and gyral crowns in a cohort of amateur adult soccer players and age- and sex- matched non-collision amateur athletes. Results: We found soccer players’ FA was significantly lower within the fundi and crowns of the frontal, orbitofrontal, temporal regions, as well as the cingulate and parietal regions for fundi only. Impact: Here we report the first in vivo imaging study demonstrating white matter microstructure changes within sulci and gyri due to RHI. We anticipate our approach to be a starting point for more sophisticated use of DTI to study RHI effects.