How does religion affect the brain? Does it make us more charitable? Less likely to divorce or commit crimes?
Researchers at the University of Utah are planning to study the brains of returned missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to examine how spirituality affects the so-called social brain.
The missionaries will be encouraged to “experience spiritual feelings” while undergoing MRI scans, allowing researchers to see how those thoughts impact portions of the brain that govern social behavior, such as charity and relationships.
“It’s astonishing how little has been done on traditional spiritual experience in neuroscience — a little on Eastern traditions, but only a few studies looking at more Western traditions,” said Jeff Anderson, an associate professor of neuroradiology at the University of Utah.
And Utah offers a population suited to this kind of research, he said.
“Our goal is to find people who can say, ‘I’m feeling something now.’ That’s what can really be conducive to an MRI study,” Anderson said. “There are some unique features of the LDS faith that make it conducive to research.”
Anderson and his colleagues are looking for volunteers who are returned Mormon missionaries — relatively young, healthy people who have “thousands of hours of practice identifying specifically when they’re feeling a religious experience.”
He’s working with U. researchers Michael Ferguson and Jared Nielsen as well as pediatrics professor Julie Korenberg. They’re seeking 15 to 20 men and women between ages 20 and 30 who are active, believing members of their church.
During the study, the volunteers will be shown clips of spiritually evocative, church-produced videos and will have about an hour for scripture reading and prayer — all while inside an MRI machine, with researchers recording images of their brains.
A projector will send text or images onto a mirror inside the machine.
