Harvard Thinking The things we carry
Mar 18, 2026
Karestan Koenen, psychiatric epidemiologist studying trauma’s population health effects. Jason Buenrostro, cellular biologist exploring how stress alters cells. Kate McLaughlin, children’s psychologist focused on childhood adversity and brain development. They discuss how different adversities shape bodies and brains, cellular and epigenetic memory of stress, timing and types of exposure, and how policy and social support can alter biological impacts.
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Adversity Can Affect Future Generations
- Adversity effects can transmit across generations, affecting offspring and grandchildren.
- Karestan Koenen cites both Holocaust descendant studies and population data showing maternal adversity impacts multiple descendant generations.
Cells Record Stress With Diverse Adaptive Responses
- Different cell types participate in stress responses and can either become hyperresponsive or fatigued after adversity.
- Jason Buenrostro explains cells across heart, immune system, and nervous system adapt differently, producing dysfunction with chronic activation.
Epigenetic Cellular Memories Can Outlast Conscious Memory
- Cells can record past exposures epigenetically, creating biological memories independent of conscious recall.
- Jason Buenrostro points to epigenetic 'memories' that may persist even if a person forgets the experience.