A new study by UC San Diego reveals that survivors of the 2018 Camp Fire in California experience long-term cognitive impairments, particularly in decision-making, emphasizing the urgent need for mental health interventions in the wake of climate disasters.
A recent study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego offers insights into the long-term cognitive impacts suffered by individuals exposed to climate-related disasters. The research, centered on survivors of the devastating 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California, identified significant difficulties in decision-making among those directly affected. This new understanding underscores the broad-reaching consequences of climate trauma and the urgent necessity for targeted mental health interventions.
Published in the journal Scientific Reports, the study’s findings come at a critical time when wildfires and other climate disasters are becoming increasingly frequent.
“Our previous research has shown that survivors of California’s 2018 Camp Fire experience prolonged symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression alongside hyper-distractibility,” senior author Jyoti Mishra, an associate professor at UC San Diego’s School of Medicine and co-director of the University of California Climate Resilience Initiative, said in a news release. “This new study suggests that climate trauma may also impact important cognitive abilities of decision-making and underlying brain function.”
The study involved 75 participants divided into three groups: those directly exposed to the fire, those indirectly exposed and a control group with no exposure.
Through decision-making tasks combined with Electroencephalogram (EEG) brain recordings, the researchers evaluated the participants’ ability to select options with long-term benefits, known as “Win-Stay” behavior. The results revealed a notable deficiency among wildfire survivors in maintaining choices that offered long-term rewards.
“We interpret this to mean that their brain was attempting to focus on making sound decisions, but they were unable to,” added first author Jason Nan, a UC San Diego bioengineering graduate student.
EEG scans indicated heightened activity in the parietal brain region, specifically the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), which is associated with deep thought and rumination.
The implications of these findings are profound. As climate disasters intensify, understanding the cognitive shifts caused by such trauma becomes essential. This insight could pave the way for new diagnostic tools and personalized treatments tailored for those affected. Potential interventions include mindfulness and compassion training, practices shown to suppress ruminating thoughts and mitigate the effects of trauma.
The California Climate Resilience Initiative is prioritizing the mobilization of early post-disaster intervention resources. Future research will focus on studying pre- versus post-disaster cognitive changes, investigating the long-term effects of repeated exposure to climate trauma and developing scalable mental health interventions for affected communities.
Additional co-authors of the study include Satish Jaiswal and Dhakshin Ramanathan from UC San Diego and Mathew C. Withers from Utah Valley University.
Source: University of California, San Diego