Science and Research Office, Changshu Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Changshu, China.
Neurology Department, Changshu Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Changshu, China.
Psychogeriatrics. 2022 Jul;22(4):521-529. doi: 10.1111/psyg.12834. Epub 2022 May 29.
An increasing number of studies have investigated the neural networks and brain regions activated by different aspects of religious faith or spiritual practice. The extent to which religiousness and spirituality are dependent on the integrity of neural circuits is a question unique to neurological illnesses. Several studies have reported that neural networks and brain areas represent the various components of religious faith or spiritual activity in recent decades. In addition to research in healthy people, another strategy is to observe if neurological abnormalities caused by stroke, tumour, brain damage, or degenerative sickness are accompanied by an alteration in religiosity or spirituality. Similarly, Parkinson's disease (PD), an ailment characterized by dopaminergic neuron malfunction, has been utilized to explore the role of dopaminergic networks in the practice, experience, and maintenance of religious or spiritual beliefs. Case-control and priming studies have demonstrated a decline in spirituality and religion in people with PD due to dopaminergic degeneration. These studies could not adequately control for confounding variables and lacked methodological rigour. Using qualitative and quantitative assessments, a mixed-method approach might shed additional light on putative religious beliefs alterations in PD. In the current review paper, we discussed the recent research on the impact of PD on spiritual beliefs and spirituality.
越来越多的研究调查了不同方面的宗教信仰或精神实践所激活的神经网络和大脑区域。宗教信仰和精神实践在多大程度上依赖于神经网络的完整性，这是神经疾病所特有的问题。近年来，有几项研究报告称，神经网络和大脑区域代表了宗教信仰或精神活动的各个组成部分。除了在健康人群中的研究外，另一种策略是观察中风、肿瘤、脑损伤或退行性疾病引起的神经异常是否伴随着宗教信仰或精神的改变。同样，帕金森病（PD）是一种以多巴胺能神经元功能障碍为特征的疾病，它被用来探索多巴胺能网络在宗教或精神信仰的实践、体验和维持中的作用。病例对照和启动研究表明，由于多巴胺能退化，PD 患者的灵性和宗教信仰下降。这些研究不能充分控制混杂变量，也缺乏方法学的严谨性。使用定性和定量评估，混合方法可能会进一步揭示 PD 中假定的宗教信仰改变。在这篇综述文章中，我们讨论了最近关于 PD 对精神信仰和灵性影响的研究。
