Scientists reduce belief in God by shutting down the brain's medial frontal cortex...
Adam Rifkin stashed this in Brain
Stashed in: Science!, Religion, Awesome, Believe, Faith, Psychology!, The Internet is my religion., Science Too, Favorites, Neuroscience, Religion, Brain
Woah:
New research involving a psychologist from the University of York has revealed for the first time that both belief in God and prejudice towards immigrants can be reduced by directing magnetic energy into the brain.
Dr Keise Izuma collaborated with a team from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to carry out an innovative experiment using transcranial magnetic stimulation, a safe way of temporarily shutting down specific regions of the brain.
The researchers targeted the posterior medial frontal cortex, a part of the brain located near the surface and roughly a few inches up from the forehead that is associated with detecting problems and triggering responses that address them.
In the study, half of the participants received a low-level “sham” procedure that did not affect their brains, and half received enough energy to lower activity in the target brain area. Next, all of the participants were first asked to think about death, and then were asked questions about their religious beliefs and their feelings about immigrants.
The findings, published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, reveal that people in whom the targeted brain region was temporarily shut down reported 32.8% less belief in God, angels, or heaven. They were also 28.5% more positive in their feelings toward an immigrant who criticised their country.
Top Reddit comment:
This machine is basically like a brain injury simulator, I bet we'll get all sorts of subjective musings from its use. Really hope it leads to something concrete.
Think of like a mental health analogy to a doctor touching an injured area to find the source of pain. Imagine using this thing to locate the physical location of your desire to commit suicide or your tick to twitch your muscle.
Adam, thank you for including the Reddit comments. There's lots of great conversation in that thread.
You're welcome! I find it fascinating that our beliefs can be changed by manipulating brain cells.
11:09 PM Oct 17 2015