Team Sports Change a Child's Brain and Is Associated With Less Depression in Boys

Adult depression is associated with shrinkage of the hippocampus; it is a brain region that plays an important role in the memory and response to stress. Now, new research from Washington University in St. Louis has linked participation in team sports to larger the hippocampal volumes in children and less depression in boys aged 9 to 11.

Lisa Gorham is the lead author of the study and is a senior majoring in cognitive neuroscience in Arts and Sciences. She founded that involvement in sports is related to greater hippocampal volume both in boys and girls, and is also related to reduce depression in boys.

These findings increased the possibility that there might be other benefits of the team or structured components of sports, such as social interaction or regularity, said Deanna Barch, who is a senior author on the study and chair of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in Arts and Sciences and the Gregory B. Couch Professor of Psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicines in St. Louis.

The study is based on a nationwide sample of 4,191 children aged 9 to 11 years from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study.

Additional co-authors include Terry Jernigan, who is a neuropsychologist at the University of California, San Diego; and Jim Hudziak, who is the chief of child psychiatry at the University of Vermont.

Other studies have shown the positive impact of exercise on depression, but this study is the first that showed participation in the team sports may have similar anti-depressant effects in children.

More about Gorham

Lisa Gorham, she is the captain of the Washington University in St. Louis cross-country, track, and indoor track teams, has personal experience for driving the research interest.

This indicates that there is a connection between the sports involvement and hippocampal volume in girls, but unlike boys, there is no additional association with depression.

Barch and Gorham wrote that these results are correlational, not causational. Also, it can be that participating in sports leads to increased hippocampal volume and decrease the depression or it can also be that children who are depressed are less likely to participate in sports and may have smaller hippocampal volume.

Confirming the impact of the team sports on the brain development and mood can provide strong support for encouraging children in participating in structured sports.

By: Aishwarya Sharma

Content: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190321135154.htm