Affiliations: Department of Neurology, Boston University School of
Medicine, Boston, MA, USA | Department of Neurology, VA Boston Healthcare System,
Boston, MA, USA
Note: [] Corresponding author: Paul M. Butler, Department of Neurology
Boston University School of Medicine, 72 East Concord Street, Robinson
Building, 5th Floor, Room 528, Boston, MA 02118, USA. Tel.: +1 617 414 1006;
Fax: +1 617 414 1008; E-mail: pmbutler@bu.edu
Abstract: Behavioral neurologists have long been interested in changes in
religiosity following circumscribed brain lesions. Advances in neuroimaging and
cognitive experimental techniques have been added to these classical
lesion-correlational approaches in attempt to understand changes in religiosity
due to brain damage. In this paper we assess processing dynamics of religious
cognition in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). We administered a
four-condition story-based priming procedure, and then covertly probed for
changes in religious belief. Story-based priming emphasized mortality salience,
religious ritual, and beauty in nature (Aesthetic). In neurologically intact
controls, religious belief-scores significantly increased following the
Aesthetic prime condition. When comparing effects of right (RO) versus
left onset (LO) in PD patients, a double-dissociation in religious
belief-scores emerged based on prime condition. RO patients exhibited a
significant increase in belief following the Aesthetic prime condition and LO
patients significantly increased belief in the religious ritual prime
condition. Results covaried with executive function measures. This suggests
lateral cerebral specialization for ritual-based (left frontal) versus
aesthetic-based (right frontal) religious cognition. Patient-centered
individualized treatment plans should take religiosity into consideration as a
complex disease-associated phenomenon connected to other clinical variables and
health outcomes.
