Spirituality Spot Found in Brain

Robin Nixon, Special to LiveScience, LiveScience.com

What makes us feel spiritual? It could be the quieting

of a small area in our brains, a new study suggests.

The area in question - the right parietal lobe - is

responsible for defining "Me," said researcher Brick

Johnstone of Missouri University. It generates self-

criticism, he said, and guides us through physical

and social terrains by constantly updating our self-

knowledge: my hand, my cocktail, my witty

conversation skills, my new love interest ...

People with less active Me-Definers are more likely to 

lead spiritual lives, reports the study in the current

issue of the journal Zygon.

Most previous research on neuro-spirituality has

been based on brain scans of actively practicing

adherents (i.e. meditating monks, praying nuns) and

has resulted in broad and inconclusive findings. (Is

the brain area lighting up in response to verse or

spiritual experience?)

So Johnstone and colleague Bret Glass turned to the

tried-and-true techniques of neuroscience's early

days - studying brain-injured patients. The researchers tested brain regions implicated in the

previous imaging studies with exams tailored to each

area's expertise - similar to studying the prowess of

an ear with a hearing test. They then looked for

correlations between brain region performance and 

the subjects' self-reported spirituality.

Among the more spiritual of the 26 subjects, the

researchers pinpointed a less functional right parietal

lobe, a physical state which may translate

psychologically as decreased self-awareness and

self-focus.

The finding suggests that one core tenant of spiritual

experience is selflessness, said Johnstone, adding

that he hopes the study "will help people think about

spirituality in more specific ways."

Spiritual outlooks have long been associated with

better mental and physical health. These benefits,

Johnstone speculated, may stem from being focused

less on one's self and more on others - a natural

consequence of turning down the volume on the

Me-Definer.

In addition to religious practices, other behaviors and

experiences are known to hush the Definer of Me.

Appreciation of art or nature can quiet it, Johnstone

said, pointing out that people talk of "losing

themselves" in a particularly beautiful song. Love,

and even charity work, can also soften the

boundaries of "Me," he said.

The greatest silencing of the Me-Definer likely

happens in the deepest states of meditation or

prayer, said Johnstone, when practitioners describe

feeling seamless with the entire universe.

That is, the highest point of spiritual experience

occurs when "Me" completely loses its definition.

"If you look in the Torah, the Old Testament, the New

Testament, in the Koran, a lot of Sufi writings,

Buddhist writings, and Hindu writings, they all talk

about selflessness," said Johnstone.

We may be finding the neurological underpinnings of 

these writings, he said.

·           10 Things You Didn't Know About You 

·           All About Cults, Religion and the Paranormal 

·           Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind 

轉貼自︰

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20081224/sc_livescience/spiritualityspotfoundinbrain

Mellow Demeanor May Stave Off Dementia             

Jeanna Bryner, Senior Writer, LiveScience.com

People who are socially active and mellow may be less

likely to develop dementia, a new study finds.

Dementia is a loss of mental function, such as memory

and reasoning, that is severe enough to interfere with

everyday life. Several diseases can cause dementia,

including Alzheimer's (the most common cause of

dementia in the United States) and Parkinson's disease

as well as nutritional deficiencies, stroke and infections

that affect the brain.

About one in seven Americans aged 71 and older has

some form of dementia, the study researchers say.

However, scientists have yet to pinpoint a single cause of

dementia beyond the general associations with disease.

While genes play a role in some kinds of dementia,

dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease and some other

disorders results from a combination of genes, lifestyle

and other environmental factors, according to the National

Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. For

instance, recently a team of scientists found that in mice

the gene Bmi1 controls the normal and pathological aging

of brain cells - a process that could lead to dementia.

The new study, which is detailed in the Jan. 20 issue of

the journal Neurology, reveals personality traits and

lifestyle could be major factors.

"The good news is, lifestyle factors can be modified as

opposed to genetic factors which cannot be controlled,"

said study researcher Hui-Xin Wang of the Karolinska

Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. "But these are early

results, so how exactly mental attitude influences risk for

dementia is not clear."

Personality and lifestyle

Wang and her colleagues followed more than 500 elderly

people for six years. None of the individuals, with an

average age of about 83, had dementia at the study's

start. Over the study period, 144 developed dementia.

The participants completed questionnaires about their

personality traits and lifestyle, including degree of

neuroticism (how easily the person gets distressed), level

of extroversion, amount of leisurely activities and the

richness of their social networks.

A person scoring low on neuroticism was characterized

as calm and self-satisfied, whereas those who were

easily distressed (high neuroticism) tended to be

emotionally unstable, negative and nervous.

Regarding personalities, outgoing individuals scored high

on the extroversion scale and were more socially active

and optimistic compared with individuals scoring low on

extroversion.

Stop the stress

Results showed that among people who were socially

isolated, those who were calm and relaxed were 50

percent less likely to develop dementia compared with

individuals who were prone to distress. Also, among the

outgoing extroverts, the dementia risk was also 50

percent lower for people who were calm compared with

those who were prone to distress.

The researchers say the ability to handle stress without

anxiety could help to explain the findings.

"In the past, studies have shown that chronic distress can

affect parts of the brain, such as the hippocampus,

possibly leading to dementia," Wang said, "but our

findings suggest that having a calm and outgoing

personality in combination with a socially active lifestyle

may decrease the risk of developing dementia even

further."

The study was supported by the Swedish Council for

Working Life and Social Research, Alzheimer Foundation

Sweden, Swedish Brain Power, Swedish Research

Council, Gamla Tjänarinnor Foundation, Fredrik and Ingrid

Thurings Foundation, Foundation for Geriatric Diseases

and Loo and Hans Osterman Foundation for Geriatric

Research at Karolinska Institute, and the Center for

Health Care Science at Karolinska Institute.

·           5 Ways to Beef Up Your Brain 

·           Video: Do You Have an Alzheimer's Barcode? 

·           Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind

轉貼自︰

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090119/sc_livescience/mellowdemeanormaystaveoffdementia;_ylt=AjJbq.s3Ph3OobqVj0xxYtAbr7sF

這是how not to do neuroscience research的範例。

我想這位研究者搞不清楚什麼是一般人觀念中

"spirituality"，也沒有看出自己結論的荒謬。這就是我何以一再強調笛卡爾"概念必須清楚明確"這個原則的重要。