Let's say you wanted to know more about how constant, daily stress affects soldiers' brains. What would be the best way to accomplish that?
Jump into a combat zone, of course.
A Tel Aviv University (TAU) researcher did just that by hooking Israeli soldiers on the war-torn Gaza strip up to neural imaging monitors and other equipment.
The result was a "real-time" picture of stress. And it yielded new and interesting clues about the mechanisms behind post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
Yair Bar Haim, a professor in TAU's psychology department and lead researcher, said he found that despite popular thinking, soldiers under stress become less vigilant to threats, rather than more sensitive to them.
The soldiers became disassociated and tuned-out, he said in a university press release.
Bar Haim also discovered that the constant stress left behind a visible sign in the brain -- a neuromarker. The discovery could be used to determine who might be more at risk for PTSD.
Bar Haim said this is the first study in scientific literature to describe real-time effects of war-related stress on its victims.
"This calls for some revision of the foundations of the stress-PTSD model," he said.
Image courtesy of Flickr/Mark Burrell.
Tags: Current Events, Disabled People, Health, Mental Health, Safety and Prevention,
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