VOLUMETRIC ANALYSIS OF HIPPOCAMPUS AND MEDIAL TEMPORAL LOBE IN BRAIN IN STRESS COMPACT AREA EXPOSURE

This study used quantitative volumetric magnetic resonance imaging techniques to explore the neuroanatomic correlates of chronic, combat stress disorder in 30 young undergraduate Palestinian subjects whom suffering from continuous strong stress in their life spam as a result from Israeli occupation and compare their brain volumes with 30 young undergraduate British people whom doesn't suffering from any difficulty during their life. The first one-way ANOVA was conducted to check the differences in the volume of the hippocampus. There was a significant mean effect of the hippocampus volume (F1.116=5.57, p=0.001), indicating that the mean volume of the hippocampus the British male group is significantly larger than the hippocampus volume in the second Palestinian male group this show that the prolonged stresses cause morphological changes in the size of the hippocampus with significant clinical effects. The effect of laterality (different between right and left hippocampus volume) was not significant (p=0.387 for British group; p= 0.368 for Palestinian group subject). There were no statistically significant group differences in medial temporal lobe and hemispheric brain volume. Study finding of decreased hippocampal volume in chronic stress subjects is consistent with results of other investigators which suggests that chronic stress may damage the hippocampus and this can be consider as risk factor for reduction hippocampus volume under the combat area exposure