Scientifically Confirmed: Men Have ‘Harder’ Heads Than Women

The 49 men and 49 women soccer players of ages between 18 and 50 who participated in the study had magnetic resonance imaging of their brain done. Next, the results of the players’ tests were compared with those of the players taking into account their ages and the frequency with which they tended to hit the ball with their head.

Michael Lipton, the neurosurgeon who has led the research, explains that the substance or white matter of the brain works in an analogous way to that of a fiber optic cable which connects the different parts of a computer, similarly, white matter is responsible for connecting the neurons in the brain. Hitting the ball with the head causes the network of ‘cables’ to become disordered.”Our study provides preliminary support to the notion that women are more sensitive to repetitive subconcussive head impacts,” he explained, adding that it was not about analyzing concussions, but ” measure subconcussive injuries “or repetitive impacts that do not cause any problem to the player immediately, but in the long term.

Those responsible for the study have not yet found out why the woman’s brain is more biologically susceptible to head injuries, but Lipton believes that it could be related to sex hormones or the fact that they tend to have less muscle mass than men.The results of the study does not imply that women should stop playing soccer, warns Lipton. “What we are saying is not that if you hit the ball with your head you are going to have a brain injury (…) What the data tells us is that the brain is tolerant to the exposure of these types of blows. It’s about finding out at what point it’s too much. ”