Shrinking of the brain has been observed from a group of expeditioners who had traveled to the Antarctic. The group worked in isolation for more than 14 months and scientists believe this is what caused the shrinking of the brain.
New research has indicated that prolonged isolation and a monotonous environment can cause the shrinking of the brain. The research, which was done on nine people who were in an expedition in Antarctica, showed that their brain shrank after spending 14 months.
The research, which was published in The New England Journal of Medicine, involved scanning the brains of the expeditioners. The research concluded that their brains had shrunk, and more specifically, a section of the brain called the hippocampus, which is responsible for learning and memory, had lost a significant volume.
Causes and effects of the shrinking of the brain
The research was published on December 4th and established that these expeditioners missed out on much-needed brain stimulation by living and working in isolation. The group had lived for months in the article and this might have contributed to the shrinking of the brain.
The effect of the shrinkage of the brain was that these expeditioners were unable to process emotions and interact with others as they had done before. This is because, the brain part responsible for these functionalities, the hippocampus, had shrunk and resulted in reduced functions in this section.
This was also observed in rodents which also had a reduced brain when kept in isolation for long. The rodents also lost social abilities due to being kept in isolation and living in a monotonous environment.
The hippocampus, which can rewire itself as we learn new abilities when less stimulated, fails to rewire and regenerate neurons. This contributes to the shrinking of the brain and reduced brain functionalities in the region of the brain.
Reduction of brain size by 4 to 10 percent
Before the expeditioners traveled to Antarctica, scientists scanned their brains using MRI. The results were kept for comparison when they returned from the mission. The second MRI scans showed that there was a reduction of brain size by 4 to 10 percent during their stay at the research station in Antarctica.
The researchers are now focusing on how they can reduce brain shrinkage, such as using exercises and virtual realities to augment sensory simulation. The researchers, however, said more research needed to be done on this subject as the initial research only involved nine people.
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