In the case of a severe blow to the back of the head, the brain performs concussive movements between the back and front walls of the skull. As mentioned in the text, in the case of a minor blow, the effects of such an injury may be minimal, but in a more severe concussion, some brain structures may undergo irreversible changes at the neural level. One such structure is the cerebellum, which is located behind the medulla oblongata and the pons, just outside the area of impact. Normally, the cerebellum is responsible for coordinating movements in space, regulating balance and muscle tone (CC, 2022).
However, if damaged, the cerebellum can be partially or completely dysfunctional, which leads to a lack of coordination in the football player: his movements will become chaotic and arbitrary, his balance will be constantly lost, and the athlete will often fall over. Another structure of the brain is the pituitary gland, a small appendage that works closely with the hypothalamus. The primary functions of the pituitary gland include maintaining the endocrine system, including controlling reproductive hormone production, growth, and metabolism. Research shows that cranial trauma often results in pituitary dysfunction, which is manifested by dramatic increases in a person’s weight, impaired thermoregulation, and hormonal disruption (Javed et al., 2015). Thus, a posterior blow to a football player’s skull can lead to cerebellar and pituitary dysfunction.
Temporary symptoms include signs of abnormalities and abnormalities of brain structures that go away with time. That is, it is implied that the body’s ability to repair tissues is realized, which means that the consequences of such injuries are leveled in the long run. In this sense, there are interesting differences between the cerebellum and the pituitary gland. Temporary damage to the cerebellum is comparably easy to observe visually: the athlete loses coordination of movements and cannot fully control his body, and hand tremors and adiadochokinesia. In other words, muscle coordination and normal motor functions are temporarily impaired.
The pituitary gland, on the other hand, does not have such an obvious and immediate effect on the body, and its damage is unlikely to have an immediate result. Nevertheless, if the pituitary gland has been damaged, the temporary symptoms — for several weeks — should include a sudden loss or gain of weight, nausea and vomiting, and the appearance of anxiety and fatigue due to the disruption of the hormonal background.
If, however, the cerebellum and pituitary gland have been damaged more significantly, meaning that these structures cannot recover as they existed before the injury, then the aforementioned symptoms become fixed and chronic. In addition, studies show that patients with long-term cerebellar injuries experience oculomotor disturbances, abnormal posture, gait, or inability to gait at all, short speech, and decreased muscle tone due to reduced physical activity (Grimaldi, 2021).
If the cerebellar injury has resulted in complete motor dysfunction, however, the patient is left lying down, resulting in muscle tissue destruction and bedsores. With a severe injury to the pituitary gland, the patient has long-term reproductive problems, which are expressed in disrupted menstrual cycles, testicular atrophy or infertility, impaired growth, and development if the player was young at the time of injury, adrenocorticotropic hormone deficiency, which in turn affects adrenal gland function (Mele et al., 2021). Thus, the long-term consequences of damage to two brain structures result in a dramatic reduction in quality of life, potential disability, and death.
From what has been said, we can conclude that brain injuries can have severe consequences for the athlete in both the short and long term. The intensity of this injury determines the extent of its effects on quality of life, but in all cases leads to abnormalities and pathologies. When the cerebellum and pituitary gland are damaged as brain structures, the athlete loses coordination and endocrine functions, respectively. That is why questions about the timing of a football player’s return to physical activity should not be considered superficially or without attention. On the contrary, the further life of the athlete and the likelihood of returning to training at all depends on the rehabilitation period, so no hurry is allowed in this case.
References
CC. (2022). Cerebellum. Cleveland Clinic. Web.
Grimaldi, G. (2021). Cerebellar motor disorders. In M. U. Manto, D. L. Gruol, J. D. Schmahmann, N. Koibuchi, & R. V. Sillitoe (Eds.), Handbook of the Cerebellum and Cerebellar Disorders (pp. 1827-1855). Springer International Publishing.
Javed, Z., Qamar, U., & Sathyapalan, T. (2015). Pituitary and/or hypothalamic dysfunction following moderate to severe traumatic brain injury: Current perspectives. Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, 19(6), 753-763. Web.
Mele, C., Pingue, V., Caputo, M., Zavattaro, M., Pagano, L., Prodam, F.,… & Marzullo, P. (2021). Neuroinflammation and hypothalamo-pituitary dysfunction: Focus of traumatic brain injury. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 22(5), 1-9. Web.