I try to keep a balanced perspective when dealing with religious nut-jobs, knowing that they are indeed, suffering from cortical brain damage.
| Med Hypotheses. 2004;62(4):479-85. |
The role of the medial prefrontal cortex in human religious activity.
Muramoto O .
Department of Neurology, Kaiser Permanente, Interstate Medical Office East, 3550 N Interstate Avenue, Portland, OR 97227, USA.
Although religious practices are ubiquitous and universal throughout human history, their biological basis is little understood, particularly at the neural level. In this paper, I will first review the current understanding of the neural basis of human religious activity, and then present a hypothesis that the medial prefrontal cortex plays a vital role in the integrity of religious activity. In this hypothesis, optimal functions of the medial prefrontal cortex, such as error detection, compliance to social norms, self-reflection, and theory of mind, are a key prerequisite to the maintenance of integrated religious activity. Hyperreligiosity may result from the hyperfunction of the medial prefrontal cortex, including rigid legalism (excessive error detection), excessive concern over one's existence (excessive self-reflection), and delusional interpretation of God's mind (excess of theory of mind).