Xu Jiansong, McClintock Clayton H, Balodis Iris M, Miller Lisa, Potenza Marc N
Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States.
Spirituality Mind Body Institute, Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City, NY, United States.
Front Psychol. 2018 Mar 27;9:330. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00330. eCollection 2018.
A quest orientation to religion is characterized by a search for answers to complex existential questions, a perception of religious doubt as positive, and an openness to change one's religious views as one grows and changes. This orientation is inversely related to fundamentalism, authoritarianism, and prejudice and directly related to cognitive complexity, openness to experience, and prosociality. To date, the neural correlates of religious quest have not been investigated. This study assessed the relationships between measures linked to white-matter integrity and quest religious orientation among 24 healthy participants using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and the quest scale. A tract-based spatial statistical analysis whole-brain-corrected initially employing an accepted threshold ( < 0.05) and then applying a Bonferroni correction ( < 0.0042) identified a region of the genu of the corpus callosum as showing radial diffusivity measures being related to openness to change religious beliefs. When not employing a Bonferroni correction ( < 0.05), the openness-to-change subscale of the quest scale negatively correlated with radial diffusivity and mean diffusivity measures in extensive white-matter regions in both hemispheres that include the corpus callosum body, genu, and splenium, superior longitudinal fasciculus, forceps minor, external capsule, and inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus. No relationships were found with the other subscales. These findings suggest that a greater openness to change one's religious views is associated with better white-matter integrity specifically in the genu of the corpus callosum and likely in a more extensive set of white-matter structures interconnecting widespread cortical and subcortical regions in the brain across hemispheres. They, furthermore, suggest structural similarities that may link this tendency to associated positive psychological traits, including creative cognition and post-traumatic growth.
宗教探索取向的特点是寻求复杂存在问题的答案，将宗教怀疑视为积极的，并随着个人成长和变化而愿意改变自己的宗教观点。这种取向与原教旨主义、威权主义和偏见呈负相关，与认知复杂性、经验开放性和亲社会行为呈正相关。迄今为止，尚未对宗教探索的神经关联进行研究。本研究使用扩散张量成像（DTI）和探索量表，评估了24名健康参与者中与白质完整性相关的测量指标与宗教探索取向之间的关系。基于体素的空间统计分析，最初采用公认的阈值（<0.05）进行全脑校正，然后应用Bonferroni校正（<0.0042），确定胼胝体膝部区域的径向扩散率测量值与改变宗教信仰的开放性有关。当不采用Bonferroni校正（<0.05）时，探索量表中改变开放性子量表与包括胼胝体体部、膝部和压部、上纵束、小钳、外囊和下额枕束在内的双侧广泛白质区域的径向扩散率和平均扩散率测量值呈负相关。未发现与其他子量表有相关性。这些发现表明，更愿意改变宗教观点与更好的白质完整性相关，特别是在胼胝体膝部，可能还与更广泛的白质结构有关，这些结构连接大脑半球广泛的皮质和皮质下区域。此外，它们还表明结构上的相似性，可能将这种倾向与相关的积极心理特质联系起来，包括创造性认知和创伤后成长。
