Washington, Feb 11 (Inditop.com) Scientists are trying to establish a direct link between brain activity and spirituality, which may even lead to new strategies for treating some forms of mental illness.
“Neuro-imaging studies have linked activity within a large network in the brain that connects the frontal, parietal, and temporal cortexes with spiritual experiences, but information on the causative link between such a network and spirituality is lacking,” explains Cosimo Urgesi from the University of Udine (U-U), Italy, who led the study.
Urgesi and his colleagues focussed specifically on the personality trait called self-transcendence, which is thought to be a measure of spiritual feeling, thinking, and behaviours in humans. It reflects a decreased sense of self and an ability to identify one’s self as an integral part of the universe as a whole.
Researchers combined analysis of self-transcendence scores obtained from brain tumour patients before and after they had surgery for tumour removal, with advanced techniques for mapping the exact location of the brain lesions after surgery, says a U-U release.
“This approach allowed us to explore the possible changes of self-transcendence induced by specific brain lesions (abnormal tissues) and the causative role played by frontal, temporal, and parietal structures in supporting interindividual differences in self-transcendence,” says researcher Franco Fabbro from U-U.
The study was published by Cell Press in the Neuron.
