The massive image: For years, researchers have studied the psychological elements related to spiritual fundamentalism, which entails strict adherence to perception. Traits like authoritarianism, resistance to doubt, and cognitive inflexibility have certainly been linked to fundamentalist mindsets. Nonetheless, a captivating new examine now reveals that mind injury can enhance the chance of growing inflexible, unwavering religion in God.
The examine, printed within the Proceedings of the Nationwide Academy of Sciences, took an revolutionary method by inspecting two teams of people with focal mind lesions ensuing from accidents or problems. One cohort consisted of 106 Vietnam veterans who suffered traumatic mind accidents in fight many years in the past. The opposite included 84 sufferers from rural Iowa who skilled strokes, surgical problems, or different mind accidents.
Each teams underwent intensive mind scanning utilizing superior imaging methods similar to computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). They have been then assessed for ranges of non secular fundamentalism primarily based on their beliefs about spiritual exclusivity and the concept that there is just one true faith.
(1/12) Our mind community examine of non secular fundamentalism is out in PNAS. We recognized mind networks related to spiritual fundamentalism and located shared neuroanatomy with lesions linked to confabulation and prison conduct: https://t.co/VBdA8febRi pic.twitter.com/P8J23uQMoF
– Michael Ferguson �*�ð§ (@neuromichael) August 27, 2024
Curiously sufficient, the patterns of mind injury have been distinctive among the many members susceptible to fundamentalism.
Lesions in the best frontal and parietal lobes, left cerebellum, and surrounding areas have been linked to elevated spiritual fundamentalist leanings. In distinction, injury to different areas, such because the left paracentral space, correlated with better flexibility in beliefs.
The affected areas look like a part of a fancy mind community that oversees reasoning, perception formation, and ethical decision-making. Harm to those networks might make it harder for people to suppose critically about their religion or to be open to different views.
An overlap was additionally noticed between the mind areas related to fundamentalism and people linked to prison conduct, suggesting potential connections between excessive beliefs and hostility in direction of different teams.
After all, having mind lesions on this community would not essentially doom somebody to inflexible fundamentalism, nor does sturdy religion routinely suggest neurological impairment. The examine merely reveals a believable organic foundation for a way individuals course of, justify, and cling to sure perception methods.
The authors of the examine advocate that future analysis discover people from a broader vary of religions and ethnicities, as the present pattern primarily centered on Christianity. Moreover, for the reason that Vietnam veterans are predominantly male, females could also be underrepresented on this examine.