Resilience after 3/11: structural brain changes 1 year after the Japanese earthquake

Stressful events can have both short- and long-term effects on the brain. 1 , 2 A recent investigation by our lab identified regional grey matter volume (rGMV) changes in people in the months following the Japanese earthquake. 3 These findings indicated that smaller anterior cingulate cortex volume was a preexisting vulnerability factor for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and that decreased volume of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) was a result of these acquired symptoms. 3 These types of symptoms were regarded as manifestations of the short-term effects of post-earthquake stress. However, the long-lasting effects of stressful events on brain structures remain unclear. Thus, this study examined the 1-year prognoses of subjects after a stressful event to clarify the long-term effects of stress on structural brain changes.