Young survivors of Auschwitz await the arrival of their Soviet liberators on January 7, 1945. (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
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Experiencing the Holocaust might have affected survivors’ brain structure, creating a change that was passed on to their children, a new study has shown.
According to research presented at the 5th European Academy of Neurology Congress in Oslo on Sunday, the horrific ordeals of the death camps left a mark on the survivors’ brain structure, specifically in the form of grey matter reduction affecting the parts of their brain responsible for stress response, memory, motivation, emotion, learning, and behavior.
The study, called “Life-long effects of extreme stress on brain structures – a Holocaust survivor MRI study,” compared the brain function of 28 Holocaust survivors with the brain function of 28 people whose family had not been involved in the Holocaust utilizing MRI scanning.
MRI, short for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, is a three-dimensional diagnostic imaging technique used to visualize organs and structures inside the body without the need for X-rays or other radiation, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
As explained in a statement by the European Academy of Neurology, survivors showed a significantly decreased volume of grey matter in the brain compared with controls of a similar age who had not been directly exposed via personal or family history to the Holocaust.
The average age of the participants in the study was between 79 and 80.
The study also found that the reduction in the grey matter was more pronounced in those individuals who survived the Holocaust as children (age 12 and below). The researchers said that this finding might be explained by a higher vulnerability to a stressful environment of the developing brain in childhood.
The scientists also detected a similar reduction of grey matter in areas of the brain associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in combat veterans and those suffering early-life stress experience. However, compared to those suffering from other forms of PTSD, survivors presented a higher level of stress but also higher levels of post-traumatic growth, calling themselves generally satisfied with their life after the war.
“After more than 70 years, the impact of surviving the Holocaust on brain function is significant,” Professor Ivan Rektor, a neurologist from Brno, Czech Republic and one of the authors of the study, explained.
“We revealed substantial differences in the brain structures involved in the processing of emotion, memory and social cognition, in a higher level of stress but also of post-traumatic growth between Holocaust survivors and controls. Early results show this is also the case in children of survivors too,” he added.
The study is not the first that identifies epigenetic changes in the children of those who experienced severe trauma.
In October 2018, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a study on “the Intergenerational transmission of paternal trauma among US Civil War ex-POWs”, showing that children and grandchildren of survivors of Confederate prisoners of war camps during the US Civil War (1861–1865) were impacted by their fathers’ experiences.
In 2015, another study on Holocaust survivors by a research team at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital also cast light on potential intergenerational effects of the trauma, and the increasing likelihood of stress disorders in children of survivors.
According to the statement by the European Academy of Neurology, the authors of the study are now specifically focusing on the impact of the Holocaust on survivors’ descendants and further research is set to identify biomarkers of stress resilience and post-traumatic growth and to determine whether transmission to offspring is based on behavioral and psychological factors or genetic factors.
“Our hope is that these findings and our ongoing research will allow us to understand more about the effect of these experiences in order to focus therapy to support survivors’ and their descendants’ resilience and growth,” Professor Rektor commented. “We may also reveal strategies that Holocaust survivors used to cope with trauma during their later lives and to pass on their experience to further generations.”
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