Larger Volume and Different Activation of the Brain in Response to Threat in Military Officers

Abstract

Introduction: Military missions involve stressful and life-threatening situations; however, soldiers should have a healthy cognition on the battlefield despite their high-stress levels. This is an ability that should be gained during prior military training. Successful and influential training is suggested to be associated with structural and functional improvements of the brain. Methods: This study investigated the pattern of brain activation while observing videos relevant to life-threatening situations, in addition to brain structure. Accordingly, the obtained data were compared between 20 military members and 26 healthy controls. The study participants were all male, aged between 19 to 24 years, right-handed, studying BSc, and from the same socioeconomic status. Results: The obtained data presented a larger volume in a total number of 1103 voxels of the brain (in 5 brain areas) in the military group. Furthermore, the military group suggested higher brain activation in the visual processing areas of the brain when observing real combat videos; however, this increment was mostly in the areas associated with motor processing and executive functions in the controls. Conclusion: This study indicated that military training is associated with positive structural changes in the brain. Besides, it provided a different brain activation in response to stressful situations. These findings highlighted the importance of qualified military training.

Factors Influencing the Executive Functions of Male and Female Cadets

“…Thus, there is no doubt that military training affects positive structural changes in the brain. Moreover, the study showed significantly higher mental toughness of military officers in response to stressful situations compared to the control group [ 15 ]. The above results, combined with the results of our research, unquestionably support the beneficial effect of specialized military training on the EFs of soldiers.…”

“…Among the factors that have been found to have a negative impact on EFs in soldiers is chronic exposure to hypoxia [ 12 ], whilst combat stress has been shown to lead to a deterioration of the processes related to attention and to reduce the activity and integrity of the brain [ 13 ]. On the other hand, military training has been shown to contribute to the ability to maintain control over thoughts and emotions [ 14 ] and to improve overall EFs [ 15 ]. Indeed, physical activity is considered to be the main factor that brings about beneficial and significant improvements in EFs, such as increased information processing, reaction time, and decision-making, as well as improved attention and memory [ 16 , 17 ].…”

A Probabilistic Atlas of the Pineal Gland in the Standard Space

“…The data used in this study were from the two previous works (Batouli and Saba, 2020;Batouli et al, 2021). In total, the MRI data from 152 (53F) healthy young individuals were used (in accordance with the number of participants used for building the ICBM152 template).…”

“…In comparing the PG volume across studies, the effect of their different methods cannot be excluded (Sigurdardottir et al, 2016). Using atlases for the estimation of regional brain volumes is common (Batouli et al, 2014;Batouli and Saba, 2020), and therefore our PG atlas could be a help to reduce the discrepancies when estimating the PG volume.…”