Based on the following paragraph alone, I feel quite tempted to file this under ‘utter rubbish’:
> Another hypothesized mechanism [for personality changes] involves alterations in the electromagnetic field of the recipient. Pearsall highlighted the fact that “energy and information are the same thing” (p., 5 [4]). One form of energy is electromagnetic energy, and the heart generates the largest electromagnetic field in the body. Information related to the personality of the donor could be stored within the electromagnetic field of the donor’s heart and this information could then be transferred with the heart during transplant surgery, producing a change in the recipient’s personality [4].
> The percentage of participants reporting any personality changes was comparable between heart transplant recipients (91.3%) and other organ transplant recipients (87.5%). These results suggest personality changes following any organ transplant are common
Next year these researchers probably come back with double the amount of variables to get even better numbers! (Because note the use of the word "any". The more variables they add, the higher the chance that a participant says "yes" to any of the variables.)
I would suspect there's some truth in an orthogonal way. Any major surgery that eliminates continuous pain, even if it was not overwhelming, has the potential to alter the patient afterwards. I know I was a different person personality wise after surviving major cancer surgery.
That said, the musings in this article reads like rubbish.
Having witnessed how the hormones secreted by a dying liver can dramatically alter personalities, I was interested based on the title.
Unfortunately this research seems more to be a survey intended to promote various woo-woo theories. Don't get me wrong it would be revolutionary if true, to the point of discovering new physics and biology. Unfortunately the quality of the data fails to support any such conclusions, leading me to believe the authors are either extremely incompetent or not people to be taken seriously.
> Another hypothesized mechanism [for personality changes] involves alterations in the electromagnetic field of the recipient. Pearsall highlighted the fact that “energy and information are the same thing” (p., 5 [4]). One form of energy is electromagnetic energy, and the heart generates the largest electromagnetic field in the body. Information related to the personality of the donor could be stored within the electromagnetic field of the donor’s heart and this information could then be transferred with the heart during transplant surgery, producing a change in the recipient’s personality [4].