A Neural Circuit for Spirituality and Religiosity Derived From Patients With Brain Lesions

• DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.06.016
• Publication Date: 2021-06-29T15:05:00Z
• Authors: Michael A. Ferguson; Frederic L.W.V.J....; Alexander Cohen; Shan Siddiqi; Sarah M. Merrill; Jared A. Nielsen; Jordan Grafman; Cosimo Urgesi; Franco Fabbro; Michael D. Fox
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; SYMPTOMS; TEMPERAMENT; DESIRE; Brain; Pain; LOVE; Religion; 03 medical and health sciences; TRANSCENDENCE; Humans; Spirituality; NETWORK LOCALIZATION; Nervous System Diseases; Hyper-religiosity; Imaging; Lesion network mapping; Periaqueductal gray; Religion; Spirituality

Over 80% of the global population consider themselves religious, with even more identifying as spiritual, but the neural substrates of spirituality and religiosity remain unresolved.In two independent brain lesion datasets (N1 = 88; N2 = 105), we applied lesion network mapping to test whether lesion locations associated with spiritual and religious belief map to a specific human brain circuit.We found that brain lesions associated with self-reported spirituality map to a brain circuit centered on the periaqueductal gray. Intersection of lesion locations with this same circuit aligned with self-reported religiosity in an independent dataset and previous reports of lesions associated with hyper-religiosity. Lesion locations causing delusions and alien limb syndrome also intersected this circuit.These findings suggest that spirituality and religiosity map to a common brain circuit centered on the periaqueductal gray, a brainstem region previously implicated in fear conditioning, pain modulation, and altruistic behavior.