心臓移植能否改變病人性格?

最近, 美國前任副總統 Dick Cheney接受了心臓移植手術, 就流傳了一個疑問: 心臓移植後, 病人能否會轉變至捐心者的性格; 換句話説, Cheney 能否從一個頑固老人, 改變成為一位善心人?

Arizona University 的心理學教授 Schwartz 和 Russek 與 University of Hawaii 的 Pearsall 硏究認為, 通過所謂” 細胞記憶” 的人体功能, 是大有可能的。人体的每一器官的細胞, 都能儲存一些訉息/能源, 再通過”反饋回路”, 而成為一種記憶。

但多倫多的 Peter Munk Cardiac Centre 的 Dr. Ross 卻應為,這是沒有科學根據的。

Can a heart transplant change your personality?

Dick Cheney’s recent heart surgery has fuelled a debate about whether a new heart can change a person’s personality.

Some believe the former U.S. vice president’s new heart has the potential to change him — possibly making the 71-year-old, known for his rough exterior, into a kinder guy. The process is based on “cellular memory,” where organs, including the heart, retain information from their previous owners.

Gary Schwartz, a psychology professor at the University of Arizona, predicts it is scientifically possible for a donor’s personality traits to transfer to the recipient.

In 2002, Schwartz alongside Paul Pearsall of the University of Hawaii and Linda Russek of the University of Arizona published a study in the Journal of Near-Death Studies looking at 10 heart transplant cases. Pearsall had interviewed transplant recipients, their families and the donor’s family, with Schwartz and Russek looking at the cases, finding parallels between the donor and recipient.

The parallels ranged from the same taste in food and music to sexual and job preferences. In some cases, “perceptions of names and sensory experiences related to the donors” were evident, Schwartz and his colleagues wrote.

Schwartz explains the parallels by saying all “systems” in the body, including the brain and heart, which have feedback loops, store energy and information producing memory. Feedback loops, Schwartz says, process and transfer information back and forth in a system.

Because of the feedback loops, the heart is able store energy and information for the same reason the brain does, he adds.

Dr. Heather Ross, medical director of the Heart Transplant Program at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre in Toronto, says there is no scientific evidence that such a thing happens.

(Toronto Star)