What does this research mean for the field?

While heart transplant recipients report meaningful psychosocial and identity-related changes, current evidence does not support the hypothesis that donor memory, personality, or identity is transferred through the transplanted heart. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.SYNTHESIS. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

What question did this study set out to answer?

To systematically map reported post-transplant psychosocial, physical, and identity changes in adult heart transplant recipients, perceived donor-recipient correspondences, and proposed explanatory models.

August 28, 2026Journal of Clinical MedicineOpen Access

Post-Heart Transplant Changes and Perceived Donor-Recipient Correspondences: A Scoping Review

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Authors

DNDaniela NigrelliUniversity of Rome Tor Vergata MMMarika Lo MonacoCanadian Nurses Association MFMariachiara FiguraUniversity of Palermo

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Implication

Scoping review finds post-transplant changes attributed to donors in heart transplant recipients, highlighting insufficient empirical evidence for donor trait transfer.

Key Points

To systematically map reported post-transplant psychosocial, physical, and identity changes in adult heart transplant recipients, perceived donor-recipient correspondences, and proposed explanatory models.
Conducted a scoping review following Arksey and O'Malley, Joanna Briggs Institute guidance, and PRISMA-ScR standards across PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL, and PsycINFO.
Identified and descriptively synthesized 16 eligible sources spanning quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, conceptual, and review publications published between 1992 and 2025.
Recipients reported shifts in preferences, personality, emotional experiences, embodiment, memory-like impressions, and spirituality, which were occasionally attributed to donor traits.
Proposed mechanisms spanned psychological, pharmacological, and sociocultural drivers to cellular, molecular, neurocardiac, and transpersonal hypotheses.
Donor-to-recipient transfer hypotheses were formulated in secondary literature without empirical confirmation, and study quality varied widely.

Cite This Study

Nigrelli et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a91468ad15324a1df3aa3bc https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm15176584

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Implication

Scoping review finds post-transplant changes attributed to donors in heart transplant recipients, highlighting insufficient empirical evidence for donor trait transfer.

Post-Heart Transplant Changes and Perceived Donor-Recipient Correspondences: A Scoping Review

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Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

Post-Heart Transplant Changes and Perceived Donor-Recipient Correspondences: A Scoping Review

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

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