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Prefrontal brain lesions reveal magical ideation arises from enhanced religious experiences.

ABSTRACT: Magical ideation refers to beliefs about causality that lack empirical bases. Few studies have investigated the neural correlates of magical thinking and religious beliefs. Here, we investigate the association between magical ideation and religious experience in a sample of Vietnam veterans who sustained penetrating traumatic brain injury (pTBI) and matched healthy controls (HCs). Scores on the Magical Ideation Scale were positively correlated with scores on the Religious Experience Scale, but only in pTBI patients. Lesion mapping analyses in subgroups of pTBI patients indicated that prefrontal cortex (PFC) lesions were associated with increased magical ideation scores and this relationship was mediated by religious experience. Our findings clarify the mechanism by which the frontal lobe processes modulate magical beliefs. Suppression of the PFC opens people to religious experiences, which in turn increases magical ideation.

SUBMITTER: Zhong W

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6197485 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Prefrontal brain lesions reveal magical ideation arises from enhanced religious experiences.

Zhong Wanting W Krueger Frank F Wilson Marc M Bulbulia Joseph J Grafman Jordan J

Peace and conflict : journal of peace psychology : the journal of the Division of Peace Psychology of the American Psychological Association 20180501 2

Magical ideation refers to beliefs about causality that lack empirical bases. Few studies have investigated the neural correlates of magical thinking and religious beliefs. Here, we investigate the association between magical ideation and religious experience in a sample of Vietnam veterans who sustained penetrating traumatic brain injury (pTBI) and matched healthy controls (HCs). Scores on the Magical Ideation Scale were positively correlated with scores on the Religious Experience Scale, but o ...[more]

PMID: 30364497

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Project description:Cystic periventricular leukomalacia is commonly diagnosed in premature infants, resulting from severe hypoxic-ischemic white matter injury, and also involving some grey matter damage. Very few is known concerning the cell death pathways involved in these types of premature cerebral lesions. Excitotoxicity is a predominant mechanism of hypoxic-ischemic injury in the developing brain. Concomitantly, it has been recently shown that autophagy could be enhanced in excitotoxic conditions switching this physiological intracellular degradation system to a deleterious process. We here investigated the role of autophagy in a validated rodent model of preterm excitotoxic brain damage mimicking in some aspects cystic periventricular leukomalacia. An excitotoxic lesion affecting periventricular white and grey matter was induced by injecting ibotenate, a glutamate analogue, in the subcortical white matter (subcingulum area) of five-day old rat pups. Ibotenate enhanced autophagy in rat brain dying neurons at 24?h as shown by increased presence of autophagosomes (increased LC3-II and LC3-positive dots) and enhanced autophagic degradation (SQSTM1 reduction and increased number and size of lysosomes (LAMP1- and CATHEPSIN B-positive vesicles)). Co-injection of the pharmacological autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine prevented not only autophagy induction but also CASPASE-3 activation and calpain-dependent cleavage of SPECTRIN 24?h after the insult, thus providing a strong reduction of the long term brain injury (16 days after ibotenate injection) including lateral ventricle dilatation, decreases in cerebral tissue volume and in subcortical white matter thickness. The autophagy-dependent neuroprotective effect of 3-methyladenine was confirmed in primary cortical neuronal cultures using not only pharmacological but also genetic autophagy inhibition of the ibotenate-induced autophagy. Strategies inhibiting autophagy could then represent a promising neuroprotective approach in the context of severe preterm brain injuries.

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Prefrontal brain lesions reveal magical ideation arises from enhanced religious experiences.

Publications

Prefrontal brain lesions reveal magical ideation arises from enhanced religious experiences.

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