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HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article

Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Cognitive Neuroscience
Volume 18 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2024.1495565

Advances in brain and religion studies: A review and synthesis of recent representative studies

Provisionally accepted
Patrick McNamara Patrick McNamara 1,2,3*Jordan Grafman Jordan Grafman 4,5
  • 1 National University, San Diego, California, United States
  • 2 Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
  • 3 Center for Mind and Culture, Boston, United States
  • 4 Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • 5 Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    We review and synthesize recent religion and brain studies and find that at a broad network neuroscience level, religious/spiritual experiences (RSEs) appear to depend crucially upon interactions between the default mode network (DMN), the frontoparietal network (FPN), and the salience network (SN). We see this general result as broadly consistent with Menon's et al., (2011, 2022) "Triple Network or Tripartite Model" (TPM) of neuropsychiatric function/dysfunction. A TPM cycling model is here offered to account for details of neural bases of an array of RSE phenomena including ecstatic seizures, neuroimaging of religious participants, psychedelically induced mystical states and perceptions of supernatural agents. To adequately account for SA perceptions, however, recent evidence suggests that REM sleep and dreaming mechanisms likely play a role. Future research should examine neurodevelopmental mechanisms of acquired SA perceptions as well as societal-level effects such as brain mediated religious beliefs of in-group cohesion and out-group hostility.

    Keywords: Neuroscience, Religion, spirituality, Supernatural agents, REM sleep, Dreams

    Received: 12 Sep 2024; Accepted: 05 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 McNamara and Grafman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Patrick McNamara, National University, San Diego, 92037, California, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.