The Neural Basis of Religious Cognition

Grafman, Jordan; Cristofori, Irène; Zhong, Wanting; Bulbulia, Joseph

doi:10.1177/0963721419898183

Cited by 32 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 50 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…While the vmPFC plays an important role in shaping a personal relationship with God, it is clearly not the only brain region related to religious belief. For example, healthy volunteers in a functional neuroimaging study (Kapogiannis et al, 2009) activated an extended network of structures within and beyond the PFC when endorsing statements about God's perceived level of involvement in their lives, including the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and the inferior parietal lobule (for a recent review of the neural basis of religious cognition see Grafman et al, 2020).…”

Section: Final Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural underpinning of a personal relationship with God and sense of control: A lesion-mapping study

Cohen-Zimerman

Cristofori

Zhong

et al. 2020

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A strong personal relationship with God is theoretically and empirically associated with an enhanced sense of control. While a growing body of research is focused on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying religious belief, little is known about the brain basis of the link between a personal relationship with God and sense of control. Here, we used a sample of patients with focal brain lesions (N = 84) and matched healthy controls (N = 22) to determine whether damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC)-a region associated with emotionally meaningful religious experiences and with sense of control-will modulate self-reports of a personal relationship with God and sense of control. We also examined potential mediators for these associations. Voxel-based lesion symptom mapping revealed that damage to the right vmPFC resulted in a stronger personal relationship with God, and patients with damage to this region demonstrated an increased sense of control relative to patients with damage to posterior cortex and healthy controls. Moreover, the association between vmPFC damage and greater perceived sense of control was mediated by a stronger personal relationship with God. Collectively, these results suggest that a strong personal relationship with God can serve an important psychological function by affecting sense of control, with both enhanced following damage to the right vmPFC.

show abstract

Section: Final Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural underpinning of a personal relationship with God and sense of control: A lesion-mapping study

Cohen-Zimerman

Cristofori

Zhong

et al. 2020

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Brain damage or dysfunction induced by neurological diseases can profoundly alter different higher-order human functions including moral 94,95 , religious 96 , and criminal 97 behavior. Here, we reviewed the evidence for altered deceptive decision-making in PD, an issue of fundamental theoretical and clinical importance that has attracted comparatively little attention thus far (see 98 for a previous review).…”

Section: Conclusion and Future Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human moral decision-making through the lens of Parkinson’s disease

Ponsi

Scattolin

Villa

et al. 2021

npj Parkinsons Dis.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the basal ganglia (BG) and thalamocortical circuitry. While defective motor control has long been considered the defining symptom of PD, mounting evidence indicates that the BG are fundamentally important for a multitude of cognitive, emotional, and motivational processes in addition to motor function. Here, we review alterations in moral decision-making in people with PD, specifically in the context of deceptive behavior. We report that PD patients exhibit two opposite behavioral patterns: hyper- and hypo-honesty. The hyper-honest subgroup engages in deception less often than matched controls, even when lying is associated with a monetary payoff. This behavioral pattern seems to be linked to dopaminergic hypo-activity, implying enhanced harm avoidance, risk aversion, non-impulsivity, and reduced reward sensitivity. On the contrary, the hypo-honest subgroup—often characterized by the additional diagnosis of impulse control disorders (ICDs) and dopamine dysregulation syndrome (DDS)—deceives more often than both PD patients without ICDs/DDS and controls. This behavioral pattern appears to be associated with dopaminergic hyperactivity, which underpins enhanced novelty-seeking, risk-proneness, impulsivity, and reward sensitivity. We posit that these two complementary behavioral patterns might be related to dysfunction of the dopaminergic reward system, leading to reduced or enhanced motivation to deceive. Only a few studies have directly investigated moral decision-making in PD and other neurodegenerative disorders affecting the BG, and further research on the causal role of subcortical structures in shaping moral behavior is needed.

show abstract

“…For groups related to religious beliefs and spirituality, altered functional coupling patterns in the DMN have been reported and was discussed in the context of mystical and "insight" experiences (van Elk & Aleman, 2017). Differences in social processing between religious and nonreligious participants were found but controversial discussed at the same time, with special attention to peer influence and membership in religious groups (Grafman et al, 2020). Furthermore, no consistent grey matter volume differences for religiosity and mystical experiences were found in a recent voxel-based morphometry study (van Elk & Snoek, 2020).…”

Section: Demographic Profiling Analyses Of Social Participationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social belonging: Brain structure and function is linked to membership in sports teams, religious groups and social clubs

Kieckhaefer

Schilbach

Bzdok

2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Human behaviour across the life span is driven by the psychological need to belong, from kindergarten to bingo nights. Being part of social groups constitutes a backbone for communal life, and confers many benefits for physical and mental health. Capitalizing on neuroimaging and behavioural data from ~40.000 participants from the UK Biobank population cohort, we used structural and functional analyses to explore how social participation is reflected in the human brain. Across three different types of social groups, structural analyses point towards variance in ventromedial prefrontal cortex, fusiform gyrus and anterior cingulate cortex as structural substrates tightly linked to social participation. Functional connectivity analyses emphasized the importance of default mode and limbic network, but also showed differences for sports teams and religious groups as compared to social clubs. Taken together, our findings establish the structural and functional integrity of the default mode network as a neural signature of social belonging.

show abstract

The Neural Basis of Religious Cognition

Cited by 32 publications

References 50 publications

Neural underpinning of a personal relationship with God and sense of control: A lesion-mapping study

Neural underpinning of a personal relationship with God and sense of control: A lesion-mapping study

Human moral decision-making through the lens of Parkinson’s disease

Social belonging: Brain structure and function is linked to membership in sports teams, religious groups and social clubs

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About