Female athletes who suffer at least one concussion appear to experience long-term structural changes to the brain, researchers have found.

According to the findings, brain images captured six months after the concussion showed structural differences in the corpus callosum - this is the structure that connects the two hemispheres of the brain and facilitates communication between the two sides.

A concussion usually occurs following a blow to the head and can temporarily affect how the brain works. Symptoms can include headache, blurred vision, a loss of consciousness, confusion and nausea.

The Canadian researchers noted that sports-related concussions are a worldwide problem that affect millions of athletes every year. As part of their study, they compared the brain scans of healthy, non-concussed female athletes with athletes who had been concussed six months previously.

The researchers emphasised that these abnormalities in the brain ‘are still present months after the last concussion', despite there being no symptoms and the athletes being allowed to return to their sport.

"This study is of importance from several perspectives. It reinforces the need to analyse gender-specific responses following traumatic brain injury, while emphasising that concussive injury in female athletes elicits specific changes in the corpus callosum, a finding not routinely discussed in the literature," commented, Dr John Povlishock, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Neurotrauma, which published the study.