{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T04:20:07Z","timestamp":1787026807744,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":62,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,6]],"date-time":"2025-03-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1741219200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000005","name":"U.S. Department of Defense","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000005","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Neurol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>A growing body of research suggests that impacts to the head, including sub-concussive impacts, carry risks for long-term detrimental effects on cognition and brain health. Despite the potential for negative health consequences associated with sub-concussive impacts, there is currently no reliable and objective method used in clinical practice to assess whether a particular sub-concussive impact affected the brain. In this preliminary study, we developed a machine-learning classifier to detect changes in brain electrophysiological activity following sub-concussive impacts that occur during soccer ball heading. We recorded EEG from soccer players before and after they repeatedly headed a soccer ball, and trained classifiers to distinguish between an individual's EEG patterns before and after these sub-concussive impacts. The classifiers were able to identify post-impact EEG recordings with significantly higher accuracy than would be expected by chance, both 1 h and 24 h after the impacts occurred. After controlling for electrophysiological changes attributed to exercise, changes to brain activity attributable to soccer heading were detectable at 24 h post-heading, but not at 1-h post-heading. The observed time-course of EEG changes mirrors a similar pattern seen in traumatic brain injury, in which an inflammatory cascade is manifest 24 to 48-h post-injury; we suggest that EEG changes following sub-concussive impacts may stem from inflammation or some other physiological process that unfolds on a similar timescale. These results are an important step toward developing an EEG-based tool that can assess whether electrophysiological consequences are present following sub-concussive head impacts.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fneur.2025.1500796","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,6]],"date-time":"2025-03-06T00:11:18Z","timestamp":1741219878000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Measuring electrophysiological changes induced by sub-concussive impacts due to soccer ball heading"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Geoffrey","family":"Brookshire","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Angelo","family":"Pennati","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Keith 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