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Ball meets head, that's just part of the game in soccer, the sport known worldwide as football.
用头去接球。这只是足球比赛中的一部分。足球运动可谓是世界闻名。
Inside your head, you brain is the consistency of a firm pudding, says John Hardy, professor of neuroscience at University College, London.
在人脑内部，大脑就像一个粘稠的硬布丁那样，伦敦大学学院神经科学教授约翰·哈迪如是说。
"But your blood vessels are just a little bit tougher.
“但相比之下，血管却要相对强劲一些。
And so, if you do a rapid rotation, they act like little cheese wires and do bits of damage around them."
所以如果你快速旋转，它们就会像奶酪丝一样拉扯，进而对周围造成一些伤害。”
In American football, hard hits are common, and concern is growing about what that does to players' brains.
在美式橄榄球当中，受到严重撞击是很常见的事情。而人们也越来越担心这样会对球员的大脑产生什么影响。
But it's not clear whether frequent head contact that happens in soccer is also a problem.
另外在足球运动中，经常性的头部接触究竟是否也是一个问题，对此人们依然不清楚。
So Hardy and colleagues study the brains of six longtime soccer players who died with dementia.
于是哈迪和同事们对六名已故老球员的大脑进行了研究，这六人均死于老年痴呆。
They found a type of brain damage called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in four of them.
研究发现，其中四人都受到过一种叫做慢性创伤性脑病变的脑损伤。
CTE is different from Alzheimer's disease, but Hardy says the results are similar.
CTE与阿兹海默症不同。但哈迪表示，研究结果是相似的。
"I'm certainly they are additive pathology, so,
“我非常确定这些病理都是累加的，因此，
if you got a little bit brain damage to do with Alzheimer change and a little bit brain damage to do with CTE,
如果你的大脑受到过一些与阿兹海默症变化或CTE有关的损伤，
you are more likely to be demented."
日后患痴呆症的可能性就要比未受过损伤的人大一些。”
Soccer is the most popular sport in the world with clear health and social benefits.
足球是世界上最受欢迎的运动，对个人健康和社会都十分有益。
And Hardy says this early stage research is not enough to pull the kids off the soccer field.
哈迪称，这项研究尚处于早期阶段，完全不足以让孩子们远离足球运动。
"The people we've studied, these are people who are professional footballers.
“这六名研究对象都是职业足球运动员。
Who played football probably every day of their lives for 25 to 30 years, probably many hours a day.
在他们的一生当中，可能有25到30年的时间每天都会踢足球，而且一天就有可能踢数个小时。
This is very different from a casual, weekend player or a school player, it's just a different order of magnitude of contact."
这种情况跟那些只有周末才会放松一下的业余球员，还有校队的球员又大相径庭。所以主要就是碰撞程度的差别。”
British soccer associations have pledged to support more research on the subject.
英国足球协会已经做出承诺，将更多的支持这一问题的研究。
Steve Baragona, VOA news.
VOA新闻，史蒂夫·巴拉格纳为您播报。
