Categories

Recent studies of neuroimaging have connected the frontal, parietal, and temporal cortexes with the individual's spiritual experiences. Unfortunately, what has been seriously lacking previously has been the causative link between the spirituality and the brain's network.  This problem has now been solved with Dr. Cosimo Urgesi from the University of Udine in Italy finally demonstrating the world's first causative link in his symptom-lesion mapping study.

"Damage to posterior parietal areas induced unusually fast changes of a stable personality dimension related to transcendental self-referential awareness. Thus, dysfunctional parietal neural activity may underpin altered spiritual and religious attitudes and behaviors."

The Right Parietal Lobe

The area of the brain involved in the person's spirituality is the right parietal lobe, a section which is known to develop self-criticism and is responsibility for each individual's definition of "ME".  The less "ME" that is involved, the more spiritual the person is, according to the current issue of Zygon and the journal Neuron.  These findings have given the scientists signs of a person's roots of spiritual and religious attitudes.

The Neuron study shows that the person's personality trait of self-transcendence measures their spiritual feeling, thinking and behaviors---a decreased sense of "ME" and more of one's self to be identified as an integral part of the whole universe. Any damage to the left and right posterior parietal regions of the brain has been shown to specifically increase in self-transcendence. Brains which had tumors removed generated self-transcendence scores higher than scores prior to the surgery.

Brain Injured Patients

When research was previously done on the brain and spirituality, it was done on healthy active individuals with religious sources (praying nuns and meditating monks) with inconclusive findings. Johnston and Bret Glass of the Missouri University began studying patients with brain tumors or had brain injuries.

Their studies looked for the correlations in the patients between the person's self-reported spirituality and their brain region performance. What was found was a "less functional" right parietal lobe, translating psychologically as decreased self-awareness and self-focus. What Johnston felt was that one core tenant of spiritual experience is selflessness, leading to better mental and physical health. People who focus on art, music, love, or charity work can decrease their feelings of "ME.

SOURCES of INFORMATION:

Links to Spirituality Found in the Brain

Selective Brain Damage Modulates Human Spirituality, Research Reveals

Spirituality and the Brain

Spirituality Spot Found in Brain