Having Faith in God can be as Addicting as Consuming Drugs

Brain scans have shown that religious experiences activate the same neural systems as drug use

Highlights:

Having religious beliefs can have the same effect as having drugs
The area of the brain that is responsible for the reward circuit is activated
This gives us an insight into why certain acts are committed in the name of God

The science behind Gods and their existence has always been a question, even though science terms it 'supernatural.' A team of researchers have formulated a study to understand what impact belief in the existence of God can have on our brains ().

This research team was led by University of Utah neuroradiologist Jeffrey Anderson, who analyzed a group of 19 young Mormons and found that the same reward-based neural systems associated with drug-taking were activated when the individuals were ‘feeling the spirit’.

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‘Religious belief and faith in God can trigger the same reward region of the brain that gets triggered when you take drugs’

Affect of having Religious Belief on the Brain

Believing in God had a specific impact on the nucleus accumbens, an area of the brain that is the key circuit of rewards and reinforcement. The frontal attentional cortex, linked to attention, and the ventromedial prefrontal cortical loci, which are associated with decision-making, were also activated in this whole process. It can also be noted that when there is damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, there is an exhibition of antisocial behavior, and moral judgment is also impaired.

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The Study

The study was initiated with a hunch that religious experience would be related to the reward mechanisms of the brain, but they wanted to be able to define it in order to understand the thought process behind why humans would indulge in acts like altruism and violence in the name of religion.

Incredibly, the authors point out, "despite the reported impact of religious experience in the lives of more than 5.8 billion religiously affiliated individuals worldwide, even basic questions about brain networks engaged by religious experience remain unclear." Considering that somewhere in history or in the current scenario, wars have been waged in the name of religion, this fact is all the more surprising.

The main reason to have Mormons for the study was because of the ‘centrality of charismatic religious joy’ to the religion.

The sample population included seven women and twelve men who had dedicated one to two years of their lives to missionary work.

The study was carried out by hooking them up to functional MRI machines while they worked on specific tasks. These included resting, watching a church video on membership and finances, reading Biblical excerpts, reading quotes from a variety of religious leaders, and praying.

The participants were asked to press a button whenever they had a heightened experience of spiritual feelings.

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Results of the Study

Time and again, the regions that had control over the reward circuit were activated. These sections of the brain react similarly to the ones that can induce the release of dopamine during drug use, enabling addiction.

The authors do concede that much more work is needed in multiple religions to confirm the results.

The participants may have self-reported heightened spiritual feelings "out of a desire to appear more socially consistent with the aims of the study". However, the research may be the start of an intriguing line of study into religiously motivated behaviors of all kinds.

Anderson pointed out that it is one of the first studies to show a link with our brain’s reward system and is a stepping stone to exploring all kinds of religiously-motivated behaviors.

"Billions of people make important decisions in life based on spiritual and religious feelings and experiences. It's one of the most powerful influences on our social behavior. Yet we know so little about what actually happens in the brain during these experiences. It's just a critical question that needs more study."

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How does it Work?

One of the most pressing questions is how the same mechanisms are activated when an individual commits various kinds of action in the name of religion. Anderson says, "Does it feel the same way in the same regions of the brain for a Lutheran woman in Minnesota studying the Bible as for someone in Syria contemplating religiously motivated violence?"

For now, the study authors have suggested the results show how these neural responses to spiritual feelings can simply serve to reinforce dedication to a particular faith: "The pairing of classical reward responses with abstract religious ideation may indicate a brain mechanism for attachment to doctrinal concepts and charismatic in-group religious leaders."

Essentially, the sensations people experience in these moments back up the idea that they have chosen the right moral path.

Although Anderson says, "The study is the first to link spiritual experience with the brain’s reward system, there is an increasing amount of work looking at the neuroscience behind religion.

Brain scans taken during extremely heightened religious experiences such as speaking in tongues have shown a decrease in the frontal lobe activity related to focus and concentration. Contrastingly, Buddhist monks exhibit heightened activity in these areas during meditation. An increase in the limbic system, which modulates emotion, has also been recorded during prayer."

Reference:

Humans 'predisposed' to believe in gods and the afterlife - (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110714103828.htm)

Source-Medindia