Brain Structures In Football: A Case Study

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The four brain structures that would be affected from a football tackle would be cerebellum, medulla, limbic system, and brain stem. I think these structures at risk for damage due to damage to the spinal cord, motor control, and loss of stored memories over time. The function of the cerebellum is to regulate motor coordination. The function of the medulla is to manage the control of breathing, heart rate, and regulation of reflexes. The function of the limbic system is to manage emotions and memories. The function of the brain stem is to connect with the spinal cord to send messages to the rest of the body (King, 2016). The temporary symptoms of trauma in these brain structures are slow reduction in motor coordination, smaller amount of control over reflexes, changes in emotion resulting in aggravation and irritability, and lesser number of signals being relayed to the rest of the body from the brain stem. Reasons for symptoms to be present are due to the fiber clusters in the pons being broken, the spinal cord being bent a little with each hit, the cell clumps in the brain stem being lost, and damage to the hippocampus. Long term issues in the cerebellum would be a sizable portion of loss in motor coordination. As for the …show more content…

2 to 3 weeks is a substantial amount of time for the player to partake in some sort of mental therapy and to be sure they did not sustain some sort of severe damage. They would be required to do brain strengthening exercises, a brain strength test, and a small amount of physical therapy to test them before being cleared to return to sports. I would allow my child to participate in contact sports because it builds teamwork, confidence, and encourages them to always want to improve themselves. With knowing the risks in mind, I would also have them examined once a month to maintain their brain activity and to monitor any growing

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