What is Neurotheology?

Intrinsic brain activity,Neuroscience FAQ, Q&A,Theories — Tags: — 6:25 am

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Question Dr Zilberter, I heard about a new for me branch of neurosciences, neurotheology. What is it, who are the researchers, scientists or theologians? Any substantial results?

Thank you,

Dahlia

Answer Dahlia,

Neurotheology is a branch of neuroscience attempting uncover the connection between brain activity and spiritual experiences. The questions this discipline asks are: Is God inside the brain? If yes, is this true for believers only? What are brain structures responsible for the religious experiences? What’s going on in these structures during these experiences? Can these experiences be elicited artificially in non-believers?

There are some results that could at least partially answer the questions and these results seem to me somewhat biased: “Neurotheology mixes terms and methods from science and religion in an attempt to confer the authority of science upon religion,” wrote Laura Owens at suite101.com, Apr 12, 2010. However, some of the theologians feel that neurotheology serves them well by helping them to study God.

Still, there are scientists feeling that “There is no scientific rationale for the nouveau term “Neurotheology”. Researchers working on topics relating to religion must stick to the conventional Behavioral and Social Neurosciences categories,” wrote Milind Ovalekar in the article titled “Neurotheology: A semantic trap set by pseudo-science for the unwary scientist” (cns.res.in).

Another aspect of your question, concerning concrete results – and I am aware of such results – of neurophysiological studies of spiritual experiences, but it requires more research on my part, which I promise you to do. I will update this answer accordingly after my vacation.

Tanya Zilberter

The resting brain is not silent

Intrinsic brain activity,Theories — Tags: , , , , — 9:27 am
Is the brain just a vessel, which is empty until the outside world fills it with reflections of its elements? What’s going on inside the calm brain of a quiet person? The current view is that it fluctuates in an organized manner even in in the absence of stimulation. When the brain is being tested, this organized activity interacts with the evoked activity.
Turns out that the same way it influences behavior. Even as simple task as pressing the button is influenced by the internal (intrinsic), which influence is such strong that 74% of fluctuations in the button pressing task attributable to the intrinsic, “introversive” brain activity. This makes us so different and so authentic, this preserves our personalities.
In the book The Man with a Shattered World: The History of a Brain Wound.,” the Soviet psychologist Aleksandr R. Luria (1902-77) describes the life of a young soldier who suffers a catastrophic head injury and profound loss of both short-term and long-term memory, forgot who he was and what were the things around him. Listening to a phrase, he would forget the beginning of it.  His image recognition ability was limited to almost nothing. He could, however, recognize a word he “meant” inside himself in the flow of otherwise senseless sounds from the radio and his motor memory for writing was somewhat operative.
So he sat in front of his radio waiting for the only word he needed at the moment to write it down as quickly as possible before it slips out of his memory. What happened after 20 years of this work, was a book — and thank to this book we now know that in the “shuttered world” the brain keeps working, the intact personality inside is reaching out, inventing ways to communicate with the Big World out there. In 1973 one reviewer called the book an intriguing and ‘valuable review of the strange but precise working of the brain.’ Shall we add “precise and intrinsic” working of the brain?

Is the brain just a vessel, which is empty until the outside world fills it with reflections of its elements? What’s going on inside the calm brain of a quiet person? The current view is that it fluctuates in an organized manner even in in the absence of stimulation. When the brain is being tested, this organized activity interacts with the evoked activity. Turns out that the same way it influences behavior. Even as simple task as pressing the button is influenced by the internal (intrinsic), which influence is such strong that 74% of fluctuations in the button pressing task attributable to the intrinsic, “introversive” brain activity. This makes us so different and so authentic, this preserves our personalities. (more…)

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