news

New research led by Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Rochester Medical Center indicates that concussions aren't the sole cause of damage to the brain in contact sports. A study of college football players found that typical hits sustained from playing just one season cause structural changes to the brain.

Our researchers partnered with No Lights, No Lycra to explore who regularly attends their nationwide free-form dance events held in the dark, including their motivations and self-reported health benefits. The researchers from the University's Faculty of Medicine and Health found the overwhelming majority of participants in No Lights, No Lycra were women in their mid to late 30s, who didn't meet physical activity guidelines.

The neurotransmitter brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) acts in the muscle, so that during strength training endurance muscle fiber number is decreased. Researchers at the University of Basel's Biozentrum have more closely investigated this factor, from the group of myokines, and demonstrated that it is produced by the muscle and acts on both muscles and synapses.

Results of the largest study to date of the pathology of dementia in former footballers and rugby players have been revealed. ‌ In a study published in Acta Neuropathologica and led by the University of Glasgow in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania, the researchers report that while a pathology associated with brain injury - chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) - might be common in former athletes with dementia, in many cases its clinical significance remains uncertain.

Research team of sport psychologists unravels the role of auditory perception in tennis Exceeding noise levels of 100 decibels, the grunting sounds produced by some tennis players when hitting the ball are on a par with motorbikes or chainsaws. While fans react to these impressive exhalations with either annoyance or amusement, the habit has also been a source of intense debate among professionals.

Elite athletes are less likely to take banned substances if they consider the morality of what they are doing, and not just the health consequences of doping, according to a new study led by the University of Birmingham and funded by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) . In the study, conducted in UK, Denmark, and Greece, 1,500 athletes were asked to complete a questionnaire about two hypothetical doping situations.

Professional football players need to keep a cool head during a match, but some are better at this than others. Cristiano Ronaldo seems to be immune to pressure, while Neymar's performance crumbles under it. It's one of the remarkable findings of a study conducted by KU Leuven and data intelligence company SciSports.

Joint successes in the past increase the chances of winning. This has now been statistically proven in a variety of different team sports. What makes a team successful? This is not only a crucial question for football coaches, it plays a role in almost all areas of life, from corporate management to politics.

A single season of high school football may be enough to cause microscopic changes in the structure of the brain, according to a new study by researchers at UC Berkeley, Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The researchers used a new type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to take brain scans of 16 high school players, ages 15 to 17, before and after a season of football.

Researchers find most fantasy sports are based on skill, not luck. If you've ever taken part in the armchair sport of fantasy football and found yourself at the top of your league's standings at the end of the season, a new MIT study suggests your performance - however far removed from any actual playing field - was likely based on skill rather than luck.

Researchers are helping to explain why some people anticipate and react to fast-moving objects much quicker than others. When Collingwood footballer Jeremy Howe launches into the clouds to take a "speccy" over an AFL opponent, or Serena Williams returns a lightning-quick tennis serve - most of us marvel at their skill and speed.

If you're a parent who feels your college-age children would choose their friends over you, a new UCLA psychology study has a reassuring message: You're probably underestimating their loyalty to you. The psychologists demonstrated for the first time that when forced to make a decision that benefits either a parent or a close friend, young adults are more likely to choose the parent.

7 August 2018 Scapegoating football as a trigger for domestic violence trivialises the issue and risks offering offenders an excuse for their behaviour, according to a UK study. Reports linking a spike in cases with the outcome of Old Firm games and England's World Cup performance lack reliable data and fail to recognise abuse is a pattern of ongoing behaviour.

A study by scientists from the University of Birmingham has found that teenage girls who play football have higher levels of self-confidence than those who play other sports. The study, which is the largest of its kind to date, was led by the University of Birmingham with colleagues from five other countries for the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).

For decades, boxing coaches and analysts have concerned themselves with "the tale of the tape," using a competitor's measurements - height, weight and reach - to determine their advantage in an upcoming bout. Now, new research out of UC Berkeley suggests that the relative length of an athlete's arms to their height might be even more important than previously believed.

Frustrated with football's pain fakers' Blame evolution - according to a new Sussex study Psychologists at University of Sussex discover that we can fake pain convincingly Real cries of pain are louder, longer and rougher on the ear Learning to fake pain cries and other vocalisations may have been a key step in the evolution of speech There's potential for a pain-detection device to be developed Psychologists at the University of Sussex have shown that football's pain fakers may be tapping into an evolutionary strategy that aided our ancestors' survival and helped speech emerge.

Can you play by the rules and make lots of money or is it worth taking risks' That's the question researchers at the University of Nottingham are asking with a unique virtual reality game. The Corrupt Kitchen VR Experience puts players in charge of a burger business and gives them ten minutes to make as much money as possible.

As World Cup fever sets in, increased hooliganism and football related violence are legitimate international concerns. Previous research has linked sports-related hooliganism to 'social maladjustment' e.g. previous episodes of violence or dysfunctional behaviour at home, work or school etc.

The home run rate has surged in the past several years and Major League Baseball wanted to know why. The league convened a committee of scientists to find out, including Stanford physicist Roger Blandford. Home run rates in Major League Baseball have increased steadily since 2015. In 2017, the rate was 35 percent greater than it was before the All-Star Game in 2015.

As World Cup fever sets in, increased hooliganism and football related violence are legitimate international concerns. Previous research has linked sports-related hooliganism to 'social maladjustment' e.g. previous episodes of violence or dysfunctional behaviour at home, work or school etc.