New Heart, New Me? Organ Transplant Surgery Linked To Odd Personality Changes, Study Suggests

A new study has discovered a further correlation between personality changes and organ transplant surgery.

Personality Changes That Come With Organ Transplant Surgery

According to the "Personality Changes Associated with Organ Transplants" study, researchers from the University of Colorado had 23 heart recipients and 24 recipients of other organ donations fill up an online survey that details their post-transplant experience. It was found that 89% of the transplant recipients reportedly experienced personality changes after the operation, regardless of what organ they received.

The study is among the earliest to examine personality changes that take place after various organ transplants. Earlier research mostly focused on the anecdotes and after-effects faced by such patients, whose experiences edge to the enduring and extreme.

Following the surgery, some patients reportedly experience feeling more like their donor compared to themselves. They ended up developing new food, art, sex, and behavioral pattern preferences.

One recipient recalled being able to develop a lot for music after receiving a young musician's heart in the 90s. She shared that though she never played in the past, she started to love music after her transplant.

However, according to the study, preferences and selfhood could be contained in each body cell, not just within the heart.

The study's respondents reported at least four personality changes that are relative to their identity, emotions, temperament, food, spiritual/religious beliefs, or memories. The only observed change that was different between heart transplant recipients and other organ recipients was the physical attribute change.

The researchers say that the similarities shared by the two groups show that the experience of heart transplant recipients may not have a unique experience when it comes to post-transplant personality changes. Rather, the changes could happen after the transplantation of any organ.

Puzzling Mystery of Post-Transplant Personality Changes

A 2013 study discovered that there is a pressing belief that the internal parts of individuals have causal powers. Hence, if they get mixed, they are thought to make the recipient take on some of the characteristics of the donor. Back then, Sarah-Jane Leslie, a then philosophy professor from Princeton University and a co-author of this study, said that though such a possibility is not supported by science, several people still think that personality changes can result from transplants.

There is also an explanation, the systemic memory hypothesis, that could possibly shed light on this. This notion predicts that each living cell has a memory. Hence, with this, a transplant recipient could be able to sense the history of their donor via tissue.

Though the nerve connections of a transplant organ get severed, the nerves could still work in the organ. There is evidence that suggests that nerve connections could end up partially restored a year post-surgery. Neurotransmitter interactions based on the memories of the donor could then lead to a physiological response to the nervous system of the recipient, impacting their personality.

Scientists have also discovered donor cells circulating among recipients up to two years post-transplant. It remains unclear as to where the cells go and what occurs to their DNA.

Though the recent study is too small for it to be statistically significant, if such personality changes were truly widespread and common, further research is extremely necessary.