Study dispels single ‘God spot’ in brain

[rug]

By Janese Silvey
Monday, April 23, 2012

There's no single spot in the human brain responsible for spiritual experiences, a University of Missouri research team has found, contradicting previous studies that indicate there's a "God spot" in the brain.

Rather, Professor Brick Johnstone has concluded that people feel spiritual when the right side of the brain is impaired because that's the area that controls self-orientation. Shut down the selfish side, he said, and people are more in tune with spiritual experiences, regardless of religion.

"Basically, that allows you to connect with things beyond the self — self-transcendence," Johnstone said. "In a lot of religions, people want to become selfless. Minimizing right-lobe functioning is just one way that's manifested."

For the study, he researched 20 people with traumatic brain injuries affecting the right parietal lobe, the area of the brain a few inches above the right ear. Johnstone surveyed participants on spirituality, such as whether they felt close to a higher power or felt they were part of a divine plan. Participants with more significant injury to their right parietal lobes were more likely to feel close to a higher being.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/apr/23/study-dispels-single-god-spot-in-brain/

[izquierdista]

1. Brain damage ----> Religiosity

Got it. This should be interesting.

[rug]

2. Discussion > Snark

[trotsky]

13. Is that the standard you hold yourself to?

I can't wait to see your snark-free reply.

[trotsky]

12. Replace your arrow with the words "can lead to"...

and we've got something that I find far more interesting, and definitely helps locate religious experiences firmly within the brain.

Much like how a brain injury, even one from which a person fully recovers, can cause a permanent change in personality. If it's true that we have a "soul" that actually contains the elements of our personality and thoughts, this should not happen. How can damage to a physical thing affect an immaterial thing?

Not to mention the difficult questions it raises for certain religions - like, which personality will that individual have in the afterlife? Pre- or post-injury?

[Lost-in-FL]

3. Yawn...

Didn't someone wrote a stupid book named "The God Gene" that was mercilessly debunked? Can we move one and study something else... like sumpin important?

[eqfan592]

5. I think gaining a better understanding of the brain and how it works is pretty important...

...but that's just me I guess.

[Lost-in-FL]

7. The brain itself and study what makes us human? Yes of course!! By all means!

Now... a 'god' center? Not so much.

How about debunking gender through brain chemistry research? To show the world finally that being LGBT is as human as having eyebrows so the world finally moves on and stop being hateful?

[eqfan592]

8. Sometimes we have no idea what research will yield.

When researching one area, we may figure out something important about another, or something unexpected about the area we were studying. Thus I see no reason to declare research on this portion of the human brain and psyche as not being useful.

[Lost-in-FL]

9. Excellent point. nt

[eqfan592]

10. Thanks!

[eqfan592]

4. An interesting study.

I found the last paragraph interesting.

"It could be that for an atheist, selflessness could be expressed as an increased connection with the university," he said. "What's neat about the new research is it explains how even atheists can have spiritual connections."

First, was that a misprint there in the first sentence? Should "university" be "universe?" Because if so, it makes much more sense to me, and agrees with my own personal experience as an atheist. I've said previously that leaving theism behind me did not require me to give up on "spiritual" experiences, as I have them every time I find myself studying astronomy and find myself in absolute awe. Music can also cause similar feelings at times. And that's not to mention the way my wife makes me feel.

[rug]

6. I think that is a typo.

My wife won't make me an atheist because she thinks she's a goddess.

[Odin2005]

11. I associate Religiosity with Schizotypy.

Which is essentially mild Schizophrenic traits, a mild hypertrophy of the social brain that leads to projecting things like intention and agency on things where they don't belong.