Overview

I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Exeter in 2020 where I studied Exercise and Sport Sciences. For my final year dissertation, I planned on investigating potential acute cognitive changes following repeated heading in football. This involved a battery of cognitive test being performed before and after heading a foam football (control condition) and a match quality football (experimental condition). However, due to covid, human testing was postponed prior to the experimental condition. Consequently, my research question was altered to compare cognitive changes following boxing (of which data already existed) to heading a foam football.

I have remained at the University of Exeter to complete a Masters by Research. The project is funded by UEFA, taking a multidisciplinary approach to examine heading in women’s football. While the study employs multiple measures to assess brain health and function my area of interest is cerebrovascular reactivity to CO2 (assessed through breath holding and hyperventilation) and cerebrovascular autoregulation (assessed through repeated squat-stand transitions).

Qualifications

2020 – BSc (Hons) Exercise and Sports Science