The parietal lobe was weakly activated in the brains of all participants in the experiment, who felt a connection with "higher powers."
Experts at Yale University conducted an experiment with 27 volunteers who admitted to having practiced spiritual communication more than once. The results are published in Cerebral Cortex.
Of the 27 people, 15 are men. Two of the participants had previously experienced signs of depressive disorder, the other two had alcohol abuse, three more had cannabis, and one had suffered from social phobia.
The researchers asked each volunteer to submit three scenarios. The first reflected the memories of spiritual sessions, the second - the most stressful situation in the last year, and the third - a period of peace and tranquility. Scientists monitored brain activity in each of the three cases using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Tomography results in each of the three cases / Cerebral Cortex.
Compared to stressful memories, spiritualistic imagery elicited less response in the striatum and thalamus. At the same time, the memory of the quiet period led to a stronger reaction in the left side of the inferior parietal lobe than the spiritual sessions. However, the latter showed the same brain activity in all participants in the same region - the parietal lobe. This discovery, the researchers say, will help in the future to better understand the causes of mental disorders.
Alexey Evglevsky