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The Neural Correlates of Religious and Nonreligious Belief

The Neural Correlates of Religious and Nonreligious Belief. author, philosopher, public intellectual, and neuroscientist. What is different?. Methods-Subjects. 54 subjects screened via telephone questionnaire Screened for Age (18-30) Psychological Health Christians Vs. Non-Believers

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The Neural Correlates of Religious and Nonreligious Belief

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  1. The Neural Correlates of Religious and NonreligiousBelief

  2. author, philosopher, public intellectual, and neuroscientist

  3. What is different?

  4. Methods-Subjects • 54 subjects screened via telephone questionnaire • Screened for • Age (18-30) • Psychological Health • Christians Vs. Non-Believers • Later psychological assessment excluded 13 subjects • 41 subjects went through Fmri (21 non-believers, 20 believers)

  5. Methods- Subjects • 10 additional subjects were excluded due to FMRI difficulties (2), gender balance (1) and inconsistency in response (one previously screened non-believer actually agreed with 43% of religious statements once under the machine) • Final exclusion left 30 subjects (15 Christians, 15 non-believers 8 women and 7 men in each group)

  6. Methods-Experimental Design • Subjects viewed statements and evaluated whether they were true or false • Statements were produced in groups of four; true or false, religious or non-religious • The biblical god really exists (true religious, false non-religious) • The biblical god is a myth (true non-religious, false religious) • Santa Clause is a myth (true both groups) • Santa Clause really exists (false both groups) • Statements were pre-tested via internet

  7. Results • Response times were longer for false responses (3.95s) to (3.70s) in all subjects • Response times were longer for religious (3.99s) stimuli then for non-religious stimuli (3.66s) • Both groups quicker to respond to truth, but the effect of truth was much greater on nonbelievers responding to religious stimuli

  8. Results cont. • Both groups showed greater activation in the VMPFC for statements associated with belief • Greater signal also found in left superior frontal gyrus and both lateral occipital cortices • When comparing belief minus disbelief signal changes were found in all groups on all levels

  9. Belief Vs. Disbelief

  10. Results Cont. • When comparing religious vs non-religious stimuli greater activation was found in the anterior insula, ventral striatum and anterior cingulate cortex • Non-religious stimuli showed increased activation in areas of the left hemisphere including the hippocampus, parahippocampalgyrus, middle temporal gyrus, temporal pole, and retrosplenial cortex

  11. Religious Vs. Non-Religious Stimuli

  12. Discussion • Core finding: • Content-independent difference in activated region of the brain • Religious thinking is more associated with brain regions that govern emotion, self-representation, and cognitive conflict, while thinking about ordinary facts is more reliant upon memory retrieval networks • Ideas for future research? • Study using sports fans • Different groups, kids with religious parents vs. kids with atheist parents • Limitations?

  13. Haidt • Back to chapter 2 • The new Atheists argue for the platonic rationalist model • Haidt likes the Humean model • Do the results of this study support the Platonic rationalist view (horse and chariotte) or the humean view(the rider and the elephant)?

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