Do organ transplant patients inherit their donor¡¯s memories? Study reveals recipients report strange changes in personality

Imagine, after undergoing an organ transplant, you wake up and find that your body feels the same, yet something within you has shifted. But as days pass, the feeling deepens, and you notice that your memories don¡¯t belong to you; they are somebody else¡¯s. Yes, you heard that right¡ªin a groundbreaking study researchers have found that people receiving organ transplants have reported a strange change in their emotions, tastes, and memories.

According to the researchers, this phenomenon is very common in heart recipients, but the ones who received kidneys and lungs also notice strange changes in their personalities, including their food preferences, music choices, and even sexual orientation. Some patients also note that their new hobbies and preferences are very similar to those of their donors.

This has led scientists to question and inquire if recipients are also receiving their donor¡¯s memories.

Are organ transplant patients receiving their donor¡¯s memories? Is this real?

A review published earlier this year pointed out a case study that noted that a nine-year-old boy who received a heart transplant from a three-year-old girl drowned in a pool and became ¡®deathly afraid of water.¡¯ However, the recipient had no idea how his donor died.

On the other hand, in a case study of a college professor who received a heart from a fallen police officer who was shot in the face, the recipient started seeing a flash of light¡¯ right in front of his eyes. He noted in the case study that his face gets really hot and it starts burning itself.

Is there a connection between the heart and the brain?

These instances led the scientists to research this more. Later, after digging into it more, it was discovered that this could be happening because the heart and brain are intrinsically linked to each other, as the heart shares neurons and cells that are similar to the brain.

Moreover, an organ transplant may cause genes that control the characteristics to change and express themselves differently.

In a 2024 review, some researchers noted that there are a number of shreds of evidence that suggest that heart transplantation may involve the transfer of the donor¡¯s personality traits and memories to the recipient, which is mainly because of the heart¡¯s neural network and bidirectional communication with the brain supporting the concept of a heart-brain connection in memory and personality.

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