'God Spot' in the brain - no such thing!

Aug 31 2006

According to Canadian researchers there is no such thing as a "God spot" in the brain.

Researchers from Université de Montréal have come to the conclusion that mystical experiences are mediated by several brain regions and systems normally implicated in a variety of functions.

They have arrived at this conclusion after looking at the brain scans of nuns.

The functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI scans, were taken of fifteen cloistered Carmelite nuns as they relived their most intense religious experience.

The scans showed a surge in neural activity in regions of the brain that govern feelings of peace, happiness and self-awareness and revealed images suggestive of feelings of profound joy and union with a higher being that accompanies religious experiences.

The procedure did not set out to confirm or deny the existence of God, but rather to examine how the brain behaves during profound religious experiences.

Dr. Mario Beauregard from the Department of Psychology at the Université de Montréal says the main goal of the study was to identify the neural correlates of a mystical experience, and does not diminish the meaning and value of such an experience, and neither does it confirm or deny the existence of God.

The study demonstrated that a dozen different regions of the brain are activated during such an experience.

Research along these lines was popular in the United States in the late 1990s with some researchers even suggesting the possibility of a specific brain region designed for communication with God.

This latest research discredits such theories and contradicts any suggestion that human brains may have evolved with a "God spot" - a single region that lights up in response to deeply religious thoughts.

The study is published in the current issue of Neuroscience Letters.