Brain on Religion Getting straight to the point, everything that has ever come into our mind affects the biological brain in some ways, and this correlation between thoughts and neural changes is called Neural Plasticity, and is hugely vital for ones adaptability. Our brain not only learns, it also reprograms and restructures itself upon new informations. Using functional brain scans, a research conducted on Japanese monks shows that immersing within religious beliefs will reduce the reactivity of anterior cingulate cortex(ACC), as does political conservatism. However, if such experiences are not of a regular basis, the reactivity of anterior cingulate cortex will not suffer from a permanent reduction. Constantly reimbursed inhibition of the brain part, or in fact, just any part of the brain will lead to lasting effects due to brain plasticity. With regard to this topic, the most apparent demonstration would be that of a majority of children following and sticking to the parental faith due to the developing brain in the first few years of infancy having a large degree of plasticity, which is vital in learning and keeping out of dangers, but may also bring about reinforced effect of informations of any kind. Interestingly, patients suffering from Alzheimers Disease will have a progressive decline in religious interests. This shows that religious activities are localized within the brain, or in other words, physical damage to certain parts of the brain will cause the instant loss of religiousity. Similarly, Prosopagnosia, a cognitive disorder where one is unable to recognize faces, has the same symptoms(confusions etc.) as fronto-temporal impairment, which is often correlated to religiousity and also acts as the reward centre for the brain. Hyperreligiousity is associated with fronto-temporal dementia, mania, obsessive-compulsive behavior, schizophrenia, and temporal lobe epilepsy, and is the result of excessive release of dopamine(which is also responsible for motor control, motivation, arousal, cognition and reward). When the temporal lobe is stimulated, self-identified religious persons will experience the feeling of being one with God (this region is also activated in temporal lobe epilepsy, sometimes causing intense religious experiences). The caudate nucleus (an area in which emotions are processed), when stimulated is found to bring about the feeling of joy and unconditional love; When the parietal cortex is activated, changes in the body map similar to those in near-death experiences are reported to have been experienced by the test subjects. The topic is of course hugely undocumented and requires much more efforts from the scientific community to widen the scope of research and have a deeper outlook at the neurological causes behind the tenacity and resilience of religiousity. ~Written by the writer of this sentence and with the aid of Google.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 12:55:48 +0000