Richard94611

Even when it tells us unpleasant t***hs, such as what's happening politically:

Scientists Have Established a Link Between Brain Damage and Religious Fundamentalism
This explains a lot about our current political situation.
By Bobby Azarian / Raw Story March 14, 2018, 10:58 AM GMT
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A study published in the journal Neuropsychologia has shown that religious fundamentalism is, in part, the result of a functional impairment in a brain region known as the prefrontal cortex. The findings suggest that damage to particular areas of the prefrontal cortex indirectly promotes religious fundamentalism by diminishing cognitive flexibility and openness—a psychology term that describes a personality trait which involves dimensions like curiosity, creativity, and open-mindedness.

Religious beliefs can be thought of as socially t***smitted mental representations that consist of supernatural events and entities assumed to be real. Religious beliefs differ from empirical beliefs, which are based on how the world appears to be and are updated as new evidence accumulates or when new theories with better predictive power emerge. On the other hand, religious beliefs are not usually updated in response to new evidence or scientific explanations, and are therefore strongly associated with conservatism. They are fixed and rigid, which helps promote predictability and coherence to the rules of society among individuals within the group.

Religious fundamentalism refers to an ideology that emphasizes traditional religious texts and rituals and discourages progressive thinking about religion and social issues. Fundamentalist groups generally oppose anything that questions or challenges their beliefs or way of life. For this reason, they are often aggressive towards anyone who does not share their specific set of supernatural beliefs, and towards science, as these things are seen as existential threats to their entire worldview.

Since religious beliefs play a massive role in driving and influencing human behavior throughout the world, it is important to understand the phenomenon of religious fundamentalism from a psychological and neurological perspective.

To investigate the cognitive and neural systems involved in religious fundamentalism, a team of researchers—led by Jordan Grafman of Northwestern University—conducted a study that utilized data from Vietnam War veterans that had been gathered previously. The vets were specifically chosen because a large number of them had damage to brain areas suspected of playing a critical role in functions related to religious fundamentalism. CT scans were analyzed comparing 119 vets with brain trauma to 30 healthy vets with no damage, and a survey that assessed religious fundamentalism was administered. While the majority of participants were Christians of some kind, 32.5% did not specify a particular religion.

Based on previous research, the experimenters predicted that the prefrontal cortex would play a role in religious fundamentalism, since this region is known to be associated with something called ‘cognitive flexibility’. This term refers to the brain’s ability to easily switch from thinking about one concept to another, and to think about multiple things simultaneously. Cognitive flexibility allows organisms to update beliefs in light of new evidence, and this trait likely emerged because of the obvious survival advantage such a sk**l provides. It is a crucial mental characteristic for adapting to new environments because it allows individuals to make more accurate predictions about the world under new and changing conditions.

Brain imaging research has shown that a major neural region associated with cognitive flexibility is the prefrontal cortex—specifically two areas known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Additionally, the vmPFC was of interest to the researchers because past studies have revealed its connection to fundamentalist-type beliefs. For example, one study showed individuals with vmPFC lesions rated radical political statements as more moderate than people with normal brains, while another showed a direct connection between vmPFC damage and religious fundamentalism. For these reasons, in the present study, researchers looked at patients with lesions in both the vmPFC and the dlPFC, and searched for correlations between damage in these areas and responses to religious fundamentalism questionnaires.

According to Dr. Grafman and his team, since religious fundamentalism involves a strict adherence to a rigid set of beliefs, cognitive flexibility and open-mindedness present a challenge for fundamentalists. As such, they predicted that participants with lesions to either the vmPFC or the dlPFC would score low on measures of cognitive flexibility and trait openness and high on measures of religious fundamentalism.

The results showed that, as expected, damage to the vmPFC and dlPFC was associated with religious fundamentalism. Further tests revealed that this increase in religious fundamentalism was caused by a reduction in cognitive flexibility and openness resulting from the prefrontal cortex impairment. Cognitive flexibility was assessed using a standard psychological card sorting test that involved categorizing cards with words and images according to rules. Openness was measured using a widely-used personality survey known as the NEO Personality Inventory. The data suggests that damage to the vmPFC indirectly promotes religious fundamentalism by suppressing both cognitive flexibility and openness.

These findings are important because they suggest that impaired functioning in the prefrontal cortex—whether from brain trauma, a psychological disorder, a drug or alcohol addiction, or simply a particular genetic profile—can make an individual susceptible to religious fundamentalism. And perhaps in other cases, extreme religious indoctrination harms the development or proper functioning of the prefrontal regions in a way that hinders cognitive flexibility and openness.

The authors emphasize that cognitive flexibility and openness aren’t the only things that make brains vulnerable to religious fundamentalism. In fact, their analyses showed that these factors only accounted for a fifth of the variation in fundamentalism scores. Uncovering those additional causes, which could be anything from genetic predispositions to social influences, is a future research project that the researchers believe will occupy investigators for many decades to come, given how complex and widespread religious fundamentalism is and will likely continue to be for some time.

By investigating the cognitive and neural underpinnings of religious fundamentalism, we can better understand how the phenomenon is represented in the connectivity of the brain, which could allow us to someday inoculate against rigid or radical belief systems through various kinds of mental and cognitive exercises.

proud republican Loc: RED CALIFORNIA

Richard, dont you have anything new???Somebody already printed this BS before.....Geezze!!!

Richard94611

I guess the problem lies in my not dev****g much time or attention to this forum. Sorry for the repetition. But maybe the repetition will make it sink in a little better. BS ? Prove it isn't true. Contact the authors of the study.

proud republican Loc: RED CALIFORNIA

You think calling who believe in God crazy is right??Oh wait what does it say,,There is a link between religion and brain damage?So what you are saying that Pope have brain damage???

Richard94611

Like most of the far right-wing, conservative, Republican nuts in this forum, you misrepresent what has been said. Maybe you are one of the brain-damaged ones. But that only accounts for about 20% of the religious nuts. Maybe your problem is genetic, caused by too many cousins (or even brother’s and sisters) inbreeding in your extended family. Or perhaps you just associate with weak-minded nitwits and haven’t the intellectual courage to disagree with them. There are quite a few possible explanations why people believe in nonsense.

out of the woods Loc: to hell and gone New York State

And you are a perfect example of one who believes in nonsense. Doubtless there are differences in in brain activity, as those blessed with a conciousness of God are restrained thereby. This is not brain damage, it is growth and aspiration to Godliness. This terrifies those given to the worship of self.

archie bunker Loc: Texas

It says finding "suggest" repeatedly. Do you consider "suggestions" to be factual? If so, you might be the one with an impaired brain.

Bad Bob Loc: Virginia

He didn't v**e for the lying clown Arch.

Kevyn

It is not suggesting believers are brain damaged, only fundamentals there is an enormous difference.

out of the woods Loc: to hell and gone New York State

And pray tell, what is your definition of fundamentals?

pafret Loc: Northeast

Richard when you kooks can't refute an opponent's position you always resort to the scientific argument for brain damage. The only brain damaged dweebs on this forum are people like you who keep trotting out the same tired studies which are never published or linked. The one time one of you clowns published the study links there was no evidence wh**ever of the claims made by the rag where the poster got the link. Reading those studies showed that if any inference were to be drawn, an equally cogent argument could be made that liberals are mentally deficient. The studies didn't claim either position.

Your first paragraph is a signal that all that follows is gobbledegook. Vets data was studied but religious fundamentalists were surveyed. More than thirty two per cent did not indicate a religious affiliation and most of those who did were Christians. Only two thirds of the sample could be identified with a specific religion, how then were the remaining third determined to be religious fundamentalists? Would you recognize a Wiccan, Druid or Satanist fundamentalist? Were the Jim Jones acolytes or Koresh' krewe religious fundamentalists? While we are on the topic, Were the FBI agents who torched Koresh or LaVoy Finicum's FBI murderers or the FBI agents who murdered an unarmed pregnant woman at Ruby Ridge, members of a cult and isn't their attitude hard core fundamentalism? Their leader for one of these worship events was this woman.

Sure looks like a cult leader to me!

Did they prove lesions or damage to brains is correlative with religious fundamentalism or did they select brains with lesions and then check for religious fundamentalism? How many brains without lesions are religious fundamentalists, two percent --ninety eight percent? Inquiring minds want to know. Figures don't lie but liars sure figure! While you are at it please define religious fundamentalism, this is another knee jerk, perjorative expression used by the left to denigrate those on the right. Find an equal number of Atheists, administer those tests since the claim is that the survey can reveal fundamentalist mentality and then check for the lesions of fundamentalists.

Further while actual brain damage may facilitate religious fundamentalism, you may well have applied the stigma in the wrong direction. The religious fundamentalist brains are more highly developed than others and specific brain damage enhances an innate tendency toward this or allows mimicry of the mental state. The cognitive flexibility which is so highly prized is the same brain defect which prevents liberals from adhering to any topic without veering off to any side bar or extraneous element.

archie bunker Loc: Texas

Good job pafret!! That ought to keep his lips moving for a while!

Gatsby

An intoduction to the search for a v*****e to protect against basic conservatism.

Kevyn

Sorry it was a typo, fundamentalist.

archie bunker Loc: Texas

No sweat. It happens. So what is a fundamentalist? I consider you, and Dick the zip code to be fundamentalist l*****ts. What's the difference? It's obvious that your brain is askew in my opinion.
Please explain if you can.