Emotional trauma linked to brain dysfunction

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Healthy adults who were near the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks may actually have less grey matter in one part of the brain as a result of what they experienced that day, according to a new study by researchers at Cornell University.

Using MRI imaging, the researchers scanned the brains of 18 people who were no farther than one and a half miles from the blast when it occurred, and compared those images to an equal number of people who were at least 200 miles from the blast.

Then, using functional MRI imaging, they tested how the subjects reacted to images of fearful and calm faces. The data revealed that subjects closer to the blast had smaller, more reactive amygdalas, an area of the brain that processes threatening information.

‘What this means is that really bad experiences may have lasting effects on the brain, even in healthy people,’ says lead researcher Barbara Ganzel, a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell’s College of Human Ecology, in a news release.

The study was published in the journal NeuroImage in April.

-Janet Cromley