Study Says non-Born Again Protestants Have Less Brain Shrinkage than Born Again People, Catholics and non-Affiliated People

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by ɟǝןıx dǝʇɹɐɹ on May 19, 2011 at 7:30am

"Religious factors may influence changes in the brain" is a stupid title that has nothing to do with the explanation and the conclusion of the article.

 

This could be a title for the article:

"Religious minority status, like other minority statuses, is a source of stress".

 

"Religious minority status, like other minority statuses, leads to stress that also leads to a subsequent shrinkage of hippocampus".

Permalink Reply by John Jubinsky on May 19, 2011 at 5:50pm

I think the study is valid but that the data can easily be misinterpreted and has been by the researchers. That is, I think the non-affiliated category contains the factor of being significantly constituted by people who are amoral or immoral rather than consisting overwhelmingly of altruistic and scientifically minded freethinkers. Accordingly, I think the category is skewed toward selfishness rather than being fully open to new ideas to the benefit of mankind. As such, I think its average member is less interested in using the hippocampus than his or her counterpart in the non-born again Protestant category resulting in less activity in it and more hippocampus atrophy by comparison. The other categories involve too much faith for hippocampus activity in excess of such activity in the non-born again Protestant category. I believe that if a category of bona fide Secular Humanists had been included in the study it would have shown the least atrophy of the hippocampus.

Permalink Reply by Scott Bidstrup on May 19, 2011 at 11:14pm

It only makes sense to me.

 

The old saw has been shown to be true, time and time again: use it or lose it.  And when you're born again, you don't have to do any thinking anymore because the thinking has already been done for you.  So if you don't use your brain, it shouldn't surprise that it will shrink. 

Permalink Reply by Christopher Phillips on May 26, 2011 at 10:07am

Atrophy only makes sense here if the hippocampus was measured prior to being elderly. Could it not be that there was a prior existing condition?

Permalink Reply by John Jubinsky on May 26, 2011 at 4:04pm

I have to assume the sample size was large enough so that prior conditions except for religious perspectives evened out in all categories.

 

Moreover, per the first article:

 

Authors Amy Owen, Ph.D., and David Hayward, Ph.D., research associates at Duke University Medical Center, said these findings were not explained by other factors related to hippocampal atrophy, such as age, education, social support from friends and family, being depressed, or brain size. In addition, other religious factors (such as prayer, meditation, or Bible study) did not predict changes in the volume of the hippocampus in this study.

 

Actual atrophy was measured. Per the first article:

 

Changes in the volume of their hippocampus were then tracked, using MRI scans, over a period of 2-8 years.