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clock-iconPUBLISHEDSeptember 22, 2025

IFLScience We Have Questions: Can Transplants Change Your Personality?

From loving gherkins to switching from white to red wine, bone marrow transplants have seemingly altered people in strange and mysterious ways.

Rachael Funnell headshot

Rachael Funnell

Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the University of Southampton, and specializes in animal behavior, evolution, palaeontology, and the environment.

Senior Science Writer

Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the University of Southampton, and specializes in animal behavior, evolution, palaeontology, and the environment.View full profile

Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the University of Southampton, and specializes in animal behavior, evolution, palaeontology, and the environment.

View full profile
Episode 13 of We Have Questions playing on a smartphone

Episode 13 of We Have Questions.

Image credit: 35lab/Daniela Barreto/Igor Normann/PaKApU/Spalnic/Shutterstock.com; modified by IFLScience

There’s a strange phenomenon reported among some recipients of organ transplants whereby people report altered memories, tastes, and personality changes. A particularly curious example included a woman who, having never much liked chicken nuggets, found herself compelled to eat them after receiving an organ from a man who had nuggets on his person when he died.

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Similarly perplexing changes in taste have also been reported among the recipients of bone marrow transplants, from loving gherkins to switching from white to red wine. This is something the UK-based stem cell charity Anthony Nolan knows a thing or two about. We spoke to their senior medical officer Dr Tania Dexter to find out more about what these transplants entail, how they've changed people, and why we think it happens.

You can listen to this episode and subscribe to the podcast on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, Amazon Music, and more.

This interview first appeared in Issue 32 of our digital magazine CURIOUS.


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