Brain damage, religious fundamentalism may be linked –study

Neurologists have observed that people with lesions in the part of the brain concerned with planning become more inclined to reject new ideas. This, in turn, could lead to the cultivation of extreme religious beliefs.

Neurologist Jordan Grafman of Illinoi’s Northwestern University led a research team in an analysis of a large volume of data called the Vietnam Head Injury Study (VHIS).

Developed by neurologist and Korean War veteran William Caveness, the VHIS is a registry of around 2,000 soldiers who suffered head trauma during the Vietnam War. These soldiers survived their wounds to return to the US, where they continued to receive medical help, and researchers were able to collect considerable data regarding their health. This wealth of information has helped Grafman make new discoveries about the brain, and the effects of brain damage on mental wellbeing.

For instance, in 2016, Grafman discovered that sections in the temporal and frontal regions of the brain are involved in the downplaying of “mystical” experiences. Those with selective lesions in said brain areas are more likely to be convinced that they’ve had encounters with the supernatural.

Head injuries and the one, true religion

In the new research, Grafman and his team scrutinized the VHIS records of 119 soldiers, each of whom had incurred a penetrating head wound. For their control, the researchers compared these records with those of 30 veterans who had not suffered any such head injuries.

The groups were then made to take tests that included a scale meant to gauge one’s religious fundamentalism. This standardized measure provided participants with statements they had to respond to, such as “To lead the best, most meaningful life, one must belong to the one, true religion.”

Additionally, each subject’s cognitive flexibility and overall intelligence were measured by requiring them to categorize cards according to the demands of diverse rule sets.

Using computed tomography (CT) scans, the researchers then mapped the size and position of the brain lesions caused by the head injuries suffered by the veterans.

The team concentrated on the veterans who have lesions in their dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) – a region partly responsible for planning, task management, and problem solving. The DLPFC also plays a cognitive function in experiences that can be described as “spiritual.”

Cognitive flexibility and openness

Ultimately, the researchers discovered that lesions in these parts of the brain, reduced cognitive flexibility, and the intensity of the participants’ religious convictions are all related. This in turn suggests that regions like the DLPFC are hugely responsible for helping people stay open to new and varied ideas.

According to the findings of similar studies, (http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnins.2012.00100/full) damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) causes people to become more receptive to deceptive advertising. This has made other scientists propose the false tagging theory, which explains the role played by these brain areas in giving us the ability to be skeptical.

Grafman and his colleagues, however, disagree.

“Our results also challenge the ‘false belief tagging’ hypothesis,” said the team, who added that the results of their study show that fundamentalism is more about the inability to remain open to new ideas, and less about the lack of skepticism.

In addition to demonstrating that “DLPFC lesions increase fundamentalism by reducing cognitive flexibility and openness,” the study also found that “patients with VMPFC lesions reported greater fundamentalism.”

In contrast, those subjects without brain injuries showed lower levels of religious fundamentalism.

“The variation in the nature of religious beliefs are governed by specific brain areas in the anterior parts of the human brain and those brain areas are among the most recently evolved areas of the human brain,” said Grafman.

Belief: a complex phenomenon

Brain damage, of course, is not necessarily the sole or primary cause of belief in the spiritual and supernatural. In many cases, the interaction of a rich variety of psychological, physiological, and social processes are responsible for the formation of such beliefs.

“Beliefs have sculpted our behaviors for thousands of years and helped shape the development and sophistication of our brains,” Grafman told Psypost. “Such beliefs systems are dependent upon other aspects of our cognitive and social processes and those interactions would be important to understand.  For example, how does openness in your personality affect how your form and act upon your beliefs?  What about genetic predisposition and its effect upon belief systems?”

He added: “While religious and other beliefs can be studied selectively and independently from other cognitive and social processes, their dependence upon, and interaction with, other brain functions will be an important area of research in the coming decades.”

The study does demonstrate one thing: people who have suffered damage to brain areas largely involved in the analysis of new concepts are less able to reassess the religious beliefs they already hold, especially in the face of new and/or contrary ideas.

The study also has its limits. For one thing, all the participants were veterans of the Vietnam War, and were thus aged, American men who had suffered psychological trauma in addition to their physical injuries.

Nevertheless, the findings align with what scientists already know about the relationship between the brain’s prefrontal regions and spiritual experiences.

“We need to understand how distinct religious beliefs are from moral, legal, political, and economic beliefs in their representations in the brain, the nature of conversion from one belief system to another, the difference between belief and agency, and the nature of the depth of knowledge that individuals use to access and report their beliefs,” Grafman stated.

The study was published in Neuropsychologia. — TJD, GMA News