Wow - scary stuff!

[Philosopher]

Wowza! I just watched a documentry on channel four about people who had heart transplants - and actually take on minor parts of the personality of the organ donater!

And they gave quite a bit of evidence for it! Like a brain on the heart itself to help remember how to "beat" and inside this little brain is also other things like memory and personalities!!

Like one woman who was so shy and hated voilence - had a heart transplant of a boxer and she become more aggressive and watched rugby, also cursing loudly at the players!

Amazing! Even more reason for me to go into the field of psychology!

The reason for this post?

I HAD TO TELL SOMEONE!

[Gulnyr]

I'm going to remain skeptical.  

How many heart transplant patients did they show?  How many heart transplant patients are there?  Did they only show "positive" results, the ones who seemed to show changes in personality?  What percentage of all heart transplant patients exhibit apparent personality changes?  What other reasons may account for an apparent change in personality?

[Fatherchaos]

I'd think that perhaps these "changing" personalities are more of a shock response to cope with the situation of living another day after a very dangerous operation. Afterall, its not everyday someone rips a heart out Temple of Doom style and shoves it in someone elses chest

Intersting bit though to think our organs are more interconnected then they really are.

As far as the "brain" of the heart, thats primarily caused by the orgran cells that are programed with a specific reaction. Which, subseqently also reacts to other chemical signals often issued by the brain, especially phosphorous, for beating faster, etc.

*suddenly understands what his anthropology instructer was trying to tell him about tissue programability*

[Niles09]

I dont know I strongly doubt that: I have a friend who have had such a transplantatinon, and he's quite like he always is.

I think the reason for strange acting would simply be that they've had such a transplantation. Im pretty sure it affects some people.

[Philosopher]

Gulnyr - 6/27/2006  12:27 AM

I'm going to remain skeptical.  

How many heart transplant patients did they show?  How many heart transplant patients are there?  Did they only show "positive" results, the ones who seemed to show changes in personality?  What percentage of all heart transplant patients exhibit apparent personality changes?  What other reasons may account for an apparent change in personality?

Let's say there were so many that hey had to do a TV programme on it hehe. But on the show...around 10 cases. These people had NEVER met their doners (SP?) and the hosptial were not allowed to tell doner information to the patient. (Due to security reasons, but they were not told what they liked to eat, how they thought, were not told likes/dislikes) And there were too many consincidences (Gah - spelling again, too early for it to be "random".

Around 5/10 heart transplant patients get a sense of "someone else" inside of them (I think that's right, may have mis-heard it). THe other reasons of the change in personality was because of "shock" but there are too many simulatirities between the doner and patient for it to be a "shock".

It was major personality changes, like being possessed, but like minor things for example a man who didn't write alot, or wasn't creative or a romantic thinker - after a heart transplant he became a romantic writer who loved to write. The doner who gave the heart had a similar personality to this according to the doner family - the family actually sent a letter to this man containing a poem - a poem that was in fact already writtern by this man who recieved the heart before, who had never heard of the poem before.

Oh! Going to be late for college!
(Sorry for spelling hehe)

Edd.

[Amberyl Ravenclaw]

Strrrrange...

I come from a predominantly Asian culture. I'm not sure whether the same perceptions exist over in the West. However... from what I've seen, there's a 'paranormal stigma' of sorts about the concept of organ donation.

One very popular movie in Asia was "The Eye", starring Malaysian actress Angelica Lee Syn Jie - about a woman who 'sees dead people' after getting corneas from a now-dead psychic. This, by the way, started off a slew of copycat films. A famous Korean drama series, Summer Scent, was about a girl who received a heart transplant, and began to experience the 'spirit' of her predecessor.

Wishful thinking? Superstition? Or probability? You never know...

I'm curious if there are shows like that in the West.

Or if this is just conservative Asian mentality.

What do you guys think?

[Amberyl Ravenclaw]

Oh, and the scary part for me is this. We were just discussing this topic in class today. Deja vu.

I think I'd be skeptical, from the P.O.V. that this might put people off organ donation. Due to the 'omigosh, is the recipient going to suffer a paranormal backlash?' kind of thing. Does that make sense?

[Niles09]

Amberyl Ravenclaw - 6/27/2006  1:16 AM

Oh, and the scary part for me is this. We were just discussing this topic in class today. Deja vu.

I think I'd be skeptical, from the P.O.V. that this might put people off organ donation. Due to the 'omigosh, is the recipient going to suffer a paranormal backlash?' kind of thing. Does that make sense?

heh cant you see the signs? Soon the world will be invaded by ghosts and deaders.

Anyway, being romantical after being at the edge of dying doesnt surprise me. There are lots of such programs, if they truly are true, we are surounded by ghosts, phanormal threads, aliens etc.

[lunchboxkilla]

...... My borther has cronic heart disease... He's on the doner list is has about... less than 6 months to live... getting a pump in a few weeks to help his heart and he's only 35

[Amberyl Ravenclaw]

Ouch... that's nasty. Hope things will go fine for him. How are you and your family doing? May you all be able to weather this troubled time together.

[darkstorme]

W/R to the heart transplant thing - I suspect the sense of "someone else inside them" is a radical outgrowth of the placebo effect, or something akin to amputee "phantom limb" syndrome.. though more of the former than the latter, as there aren't too many sensory nerves in the heart.  (Not connected to the cerebral cortex, anyway.)  And therein lies the other problem with it - the personality lies in the cerebellum: hence why a frontal lobotomy usually resulted in a dramatic personality shift.  I suspect that any change in personality following a heart transplant is purely psychological.

Also, I think Gulnyr's point is well-made.. with only 10 cases shown, of the thousands of yearly heart transplants, it'd be easy for the report to be biased strongly in favour of the outcome they were looking for.  If you had the actual numbers of patients who had this reaction vs. those that did not, and some quantifiable scale of personality change, you could do a statistical breakdown and determine whether it was statistically significant.  If they didn't offer that information, it's likely just sensationalism.

(I'm unfamiliar with Channel 4.. is it known for its serious documentaries, or does it regularly chronicle the bizzare and paranormal?)

[crazedgoblin]

FREAKY stuff, was a good program i thought

[Philosopher]

darkstorme - 6/27/2006  2:44 PM
(I'm unfamiliar with Channel 4.. is it known for its serious documentaries, or does it regularly chronicle the bizzare and paranormal?)

Serious stuff it is, at first I was sceptical but the evidence presented gave me a new insight.

[Nook]

I've seen that show and others like it.  They all were about taking on the subtle traits...it's not limited to only hearts.  Then it reminded me of the movie "Body Parts" and I got freaked out.