{"id":1504,"date":"2021-07-24T12:46:08","date_gmt":"2021-07-24T07:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diabetesasia.org\/magazine\/?p=1504"},"modified":"2025-03-17T10:04:29","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T04:34:29","slug":"brain-circuit-for-spirituality-identified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diabetesasia.org\/magazine\/brain-circuit-for-spirituality-identified\/","title":{"rendered":"Brain Circuit for Spirituality Identified"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brain Circuit for Spirituality Identified<\/h2>\n

Summary<\/a>:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>A new study has identified a specific brain circuit centered in the periaqueductal gray linked to spiritual acceptance and religiosity.<\/em><\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital<\/em><\/p>\n

More than 80 percent of people around the world consider themselves to be religious or spiritual. However, research on the neuroscience of spirituality and religiosity has been sparse. Previous studies have used functional neuroimaging, in which an individual undergoes a brain scan while performing a task to see what areas of the brain light up. However, these correlative studies have given a spotty and often inconsistent picture of spirituality.<\/p>\n

A new study led by investigators at\u00a0Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital\u00a0takes a new approach to mapping spirituality and religiosity and finds that spiritual acceptance can be localized to a specific brain circuit.<\/p>\n

This brain circuit is centered in the periaqueductal gray (PAG), a brainstem region implicated in numerous functions, including fear conditioning, pain modulation, altruistic behaviors, and unconditional love.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s findings are published in\u00a0Biological Psychiatry<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur results suggest that spirituality and religiosity are rooted in fundamental, neurobiological dynamics and deeply woven into our neuro-fabric,\u201d said corresponding author Michael Ferguson, Ph.D., a principal investigator in Brigham\u2019s Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics. \u201cWe were astonished to find that this brain circuit for spirituality is centered in one of the most evolutionarily preserved structures in the brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

To conduct their study, Ferguson and colleagues used a technique called lesion network mapping that allows investigators to map complex human behaviors to specific brain circuits based on the locations of brain lesions in patients.<\/p>\n

The team leveraged a previously published dataset that included 88 neurosurgical patients undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumor. Lesion locations were distributed throughout the brain. Patients completed a survey that included questions about spiritual acceptance before and after surgery.<\/p>\n

The team validated their results using the second dataset of more than 100 patients with lesions caused by penetrating head trauma from combat during the Vietnam War. These participants also completed questionnaires that included questions about religiosity (such as, \u201cDo you consider yourself a religious person? Yes or No?\u201d).<\/p>\n

Of the 88 neurosurgical patients, 30 showed a decrease in self-reported spiritual belief before and after neurosurgical brain tumor resection, 29 showed an increase, and 29 showed no change. Using lesion network mapping, the team found that self-reported spirituality mapped to a specific brain circuit centered on the PAG. The circuit included positive nodes and negative nodes \u2014 lesions that disrupted these respective nodes either decreased or increased self-reported spiritual beliefs.<\/p>\n

Results on religiosity from the second dataset aligned with these findings. In addition, in a review of the literature, the researchers found several case reports of patients who became hyper-religious after experiencing brain lesions that affected the negative nodes of the circuit.<\/p>\n

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Lesion locations associated with other neurological and psychiatric symptoms also intersected with the spirituality circuit. Specifically, lesions causing parkinsonism intersected positive circuit areas, as did lesions associated with decreased spirituality. Lesions causing delusions and alien limb syndrome intersected with negative regions, associated with increased spirituality and religiosity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to note that these overlaps may help understand shared features and associations, but these results should not be over-interpreted,\u201d said Ferguson.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, our results do not imply that religion is a delusion, that historical religious figures suffered from alien limb syndrome, or that Parkinson\u2019s disease arises due to a lack of religious faith. Instead, our results point to the deep roots of spiritual beliefs in a part of our brain that\u2019s been implicated in many important functions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The authors note that the datasets they used do not provide rich information about the patient\u2019s upbringing, influencing spiritual beliefs. Patients in both datasets were from predominantly Christian cultures. To understand the generalizability of their results, they would need to replicate their study across many backgrounds.<\/p>\n

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Lesion locations associated with other neurological and psychiatric symptoms also intersected with the spirituality circuit. Image is in the public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The team is also interested in untangling religiosity and spirituality to understand brain circuits that may be driving differences. Additionally, Ferguson would like to pursue clinical and translational applications for the findings, including understanding the role that spirituality and compassion may have in clinical treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly recently have medicine and spirituality been fractionated from one another. There seems to be this perennial union between healing and spirituality across cultures and civilizations,\u201d said Ferguson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m interested in the degree to which our understanding of brain circuits could help craft scientifically grounded, clinically-translatable questions about how healing and spirituality can co-inform each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Neuroscience of religion and Spirituality<\/h2>\n

The\u00a0neuroscience of religion<\/b>, also known as\u00a0neurotheology<\/b> and\u00a0spiritual neuroscience<\/b><\/a>, <\/sup>attempts to explain religious experience and behavior in neuroscientific terms.<\/sup>\u00a0It is the study of correlations of\u00a0neural\u00a0phenomena with subjective experiences of\u00a0spirituality\u00a0and hypotheses to explain these phenomena. This contrasts with the\u00a0psychology of religion,\u00a0which studies mental, rather than neural, states.<\/p>\n

Proponents of the neuroscience of religion say there is a\u00a0neurological\u00a0and\u00a0evolutionary\u00a0basis for\u00a0subjective experiences\u00a0traditionally categorized as\u00a0spiritual or religious.<\/sup>\u00a0The field has formed the basis of several\u00a0popular science<\/a>\u00a0books.<\/sup><\/sup><\/sup><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/span><\/h2>\n

“Neurotheology” is a\u00a0neologism<\/a> that describes the scientific study of the neural correlates of religious or spiritual beliefs, experiences, and practices. Other researchers prefer to use terms like “spiritual neuroscience” or “neuroscience of religion.” Researchers in the field attempt to explain the neurological basis for religious experiences, such as:<\/sup><\/p>\n