CONTACTStaffCAREER OPPORTUNITIESADVERTISE WITH USPRIVACY POLICYPRIVACY PREFERENCESTERMS OF USELEGAL NOTICE
© 2024 Pride Publishing Inc.
All Rights reserved
All Rights reserved
By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
A Cornell University study found that the brains of people who were geographically closer to a disaster at the time it took place, such as the collapse of the World Trade Center, react more strongly to emotional triggers--even if they otherwise seem to have healed fully.
Researchers found that three years after 9/11, people closer to ground zero tended to still experience lingering symptoms (bad dreams, jumpiness, thinking about the incident, and avoiding the site of the trauma), though they weren't severe enough to be diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging to see how people's brains responded to photographs of fearful versus calm faces, the scans of 11 people who were within 1.5 miles of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, were compared with those who were living more than 200 miles away at the time; none of the subjects had psychiatric disorders.
"These people appear to be doing OK, but they may indeed be having more sensitive responses to upsetting stimuli," said Elise Temple, a coauthor and assistant professor of human development at Cornell, in a statement.
And the brains of people with lingering symptoms had significantly more emotional reactions when shown photographs of fearful faces. The kinds of changes that these traumas cause in the brain create vulnerability to developing future mental disorders, say the researchers.
As a researcher on one of the first studies to look at the effects of trauma on the brains of healthy people, Temple tells The Advocate that people who experience or witness a hate crime could show similar results. "One of the things we found is an increased fear response in anyone who had experienced trauma. The trauma of a hate crime would be intense and could affect your brain." (The Advocate)
Want more breaking equality news & trending entertainment stories?
Check out our NEW 24/7 streaming service: the Advocate Channel!
Download the Advocate Channel App for your mobile phone and your favorite streaming device!
From our Sponsors
Most Popular
Meet all 37 of the queer women in this season's WNBA
April 17 2024 11:24 AM
Here are the 15 gayest travel destinations in the world: report
March 26 2024 9:23 AM
21+ steamy photos of Scotland’s finest gay men in Elska Glasgow
February 01 2024 10:07 PM
More Than 50 of Our Favorite LGBTQ+ Moms
May 12 2024 11:44 AM
Conjoined twins Lori Schappell and trans man George Schappell dead at 62
April 27 2024 6:13 PM
Latest Stories
Joe Biden sends queer lawmakers & LGBTQ+ allies to Paris Olympics
July 24 2024 12:08 PM
Kamala Harris rides wave of Democratic energy at kickoff event in Wisconsin
July 23 2024 3:36 PM
'Devastated:' A six-week abortion ban will go into effect in Iowa next week
July 23 2024 2:28 PM
Four hours, 44,000 Black women, and one Zoom call
July 23 2024 2:17 PM