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Science can't say whether God represents a loving, vengeful or nonexistent being. But researchers have revealed for the first time how such religious beliefs trigger different parts of the brain.
Brain scans showed that participants fell back on higher thought patterns when reacting to religious statements, whether trying to figure out God's thoughts and emotions or thinking about metaphorical meaning behind religious teachings.
"That suggests that religion is not a special case of a belief system, but evolved along with other belief and social cognitive abilities," said Jordan Grafman, a cognitive neuroscientist at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland.
Such results fit with previous research which shows that no single "God spot" exists in the brain. Both believers and nonbelievers participated in the new study, detailed in this week's issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A first part of the study established a range or spectrum of religious beliefs relating to God's perceived involvement in this world, God's perceived emotion, and personal experiences as opposed to abstract doctrine. The second part examined how participants responded to religious statements reflecting those beliefs, with the help of fMRI scanners.
The brain scans showed that people use known, higher-function brain regions to sort out their thoughts on God and religion. For instance, parts of the brain linked with theory of mind (ToM) lit up when trying to understand a supposedly detached God's intentions – although individual minds varied wildly when pondering a more involved God.
A possible explanation: "Probably because we would tend to use theory of mind when we were puzzled, concerned, or threatened by another’s behavior," Grafman told LiveScience.
People again relied on theory of mind, as well as brain regions that detect emotion through facial expression and language, when they read statements reflecting God's anger. Statements of God's love stimulated regions connected with positive emotions and suppression of sadness
Unsurprisingly, statements of religious doctrine activated parts of the brain that help decode metaphor and abstractness. That contrasted with statements reflecting religious experience, which prodded the brain to retrieve memories and imagery of self in action.
Even statements that believers or nonbelievers disagreed with produced intriguing results.
"Reading a statement that you have been asked to compare your own personal beliefs with certainly will activate your own belief system," Grafman pointed out. He and his colleagues observed brain regions relating to disgust or conflict lighting up in response.
One question that remains unanswered is whether religion evolved as a central functional preoccupation for human brains in early societies, or whether it simply relied on brain regions which had evolved for other types of thought-processing.
Future research may also try to see if human brains respond similarly for different religions, given that this study focused only on Western Christian beliefs.
"The more interesting studies will wind up comparing different belief systems with similar dimensions to see if they also activate the same brain areas," Grafman said. "If they do, we can better define why those brain areas evolved in humans."
虽然从科学角度不能说上帝是仁慈的、报复心强的或不存在的。但是研究人员首次发现，宗教信仰确实能激发大脑不同的区域。
脑部扫描显示，当受试者对宗教语性语句产生反应时，大脑就进入了高级思维的模式，这可能表明大脑正在极力揣测上帝的想法与情感，或是正在捉摸宗教教义背后的真实隐喻。
这种宗教信仰的高级思维模式并不是一种信仰体系中的特例，它是伴随其他信仰和社会认知能力一起进化的，”美国马里兰州贝塞斯达国立神经与脑卒中疾病研究院的认知神经科学家乔丹·葛夫曼说。
上述结论正好验证了以往的研究，由信徒与非信徒受试者参与的新研究表明，大脑中的“上帝点”并不是仅仅局限于一点，这一研究成果详细地登载本周出版的《美国国家科学院学报》上。
研究的第一步，首先确定针对受试宗教的研究范围，包括对上帝的感知、对宗教信仰的感知，以及与非抽象教义截然不同的自身宗教实践的感受。研究的第二步，是借助功能磁共振成像扫描仪，验证受试者对这些宗教性语句的反映。
脑部扫描显示，受试者在试图理解上帝意图与宗教思想时，大脑中上述负责高级思维的区域被激发。例如，当受试者试图理解据称是超然的上帝意图时，负责心理理论思维的那部分大脑区域被激活—虽然受试者在思考深奥的上帝意图时，想法可能形形色色而且可能趋于荒诞。
对此现象一种可能的解释是：“或许当人们感到疑惑、担心，或者受到他人威胁时，往往会使用心理理论来处理问题，”葛夫曼对美国《生命科学》网站说。
当受试者读到反映上帝愤怒的语句时，往往会激活大脑心理理论区域及识别面部表情与语言的区域，当读到反映上帝慈爱的语句时，会激活大脑负责积极情绪与抑制悲伤情绪的区域。
其实，宗教教义的语句激活了负责解释隐喻与抽象概念那部分大脑区域。与宗教实践的感受相比，宗教教义语句更能激发大脑自身的记忆系统与自身的意象系统，使其积极参与活动。
即使教徒或者非教徒自身感受不同，但是这一结论足以令人关注。
葛夫曼说：“每当受试者读到一个宗教语句时，都会调动自身的个人信仰系统，这无疑会使大脑中的个人信仰系统更加活跃”。葛夫曼与他的同事注意到，在宗教仪式对领祷人应答时，负责厌恶情绪和抵触情绪那部分大脑区域被激活
但仍有一个未解问题是，是否宗教促使早期社会人的大脑逐渐发生进化，使大脑具备了这种全神贯注的功能。
上述研究仅仅局限于西方的基督教，今后的研究也可以尝试其它不同的宗教，检查验证人类是否也有同样的反映。
这项令人关注的研究最终将会得到结论，用同样的测试方法研究其它的宗教信仰，观测人类的大脑是否是相同的区域被激活，”葛夫曼说，“如果受试者激发的区域相同，就可以肯定地说，正是由于不断的进化，才使人类大脑相关区域具备了这些功能。
