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East Netherlands
09/04/2021
Brain activity predicts PTST resilience
Healthy Brain – Why does one person develop post-traumatic symptoms after a stressful event while another does not? Police officers with higher activity in the anterior frontal brain area appear to respond more resiliently to a traumatic event. Brain researchers from the Donders Institute and the Behavioural Science Institute discovered this in collaboration with the Police Academy. An article on their study was published in Nature Human Behaviour.
The study involved 340 police officers from all over the Netherlands.
“We tested them for the first time during the early stages of their police training, and again after 16 months. During that time period, police officers usually experience traumatic events for the first time. While interning as part of their training programmes, they are often involved as first aid providers when emergency services are requested. As a result, they are very likely to see stressful events, such as accidents, someone who has died or is severely confused, or they are confronted with violence,”
says lead author Reinoud Kaldewaij.
Source: Radboud University, partner Think East Netherlands
