How a brain injury can cause religious fanaticism

Each one of us has a way of seeing the world, our own system of values ​​and beliefs that make us observe, analyze and judge reality in a certain way. Within these value systems, a high proportion of the population includes spiritual and religious beliefs, in many cases acquired and assimilated through culture and education. And in some cases these beliefs and their reinforcement throughout life can give rise to inflexible interpretations of how the world is or should be.

Likewise, this lack of cognitive flexibility is not always the product of learning, but there are injuries and alterations in different parts of the brain that can make it makes it difficult or even loses enough cognitive flexibility to accept other possible interpretations of reality, so that only one's own beliefs are acceptable. We are talking about how a brain injury can cause religious fanaticism.

• Related article: "Types of religion (and their differences in beliefs and ideas)"

Religious beliefs and fanaticism

Religious beliefs are understood to be those set of ideas considered as true by people who profess them and that usually include references to a specific way of seeing and interpreting existence and reality.

Along with other types of values ​​and beliefs, they form part of the value system. from which we organize our actions and existence in the world. They are a certain way of making sense of reality based on experience or information that has been transmitted by society and culture. In themselves they are neither positive nor negative, but one more part of the idiosyncrasy of each person. And under normal conditions they are not necessarily exclusive with other forms of interpretation.

However, sometimes people limit their perspective of reality to one or a specific group of beliefs, rejecting the possibility of the existence of other alternatives and considering their own as the only valid one.

If the defense of this belief system becomes vehement and passionate to the point of becoming irrational, tries to impose such beliefs on others and rule out the possibility of criticizing them or the viability of other alternatives can be considered that we are in the presence of fanaticism. One of the main aspects that differentiates fanaticism from belief (whether religious or not) is the loss of cognitive flexibility and openness to new perspectives.

cognitive flexibility

One of the main and most important executive functions, cognitive flexibility is that capacity that allows human beings to be able to modify their cognitions and behaviors from new information coming from abroad or from the processing and elaboration of this due to the reasoning.

This capacity allows us to be able to face changes in the natural and social environment and makes us capable of surviving, generating new strategies and adopting new approaches. It serves to reorganize our mental structure and our value systems and beliefs based on existing information. Likewise, it allows us to learn from experience and connect with reality.

The absence or diminished presence of this capacity causes, on the contrary, that we are worse off prepared to face alterations in the environment and assume the arrival of novelties alien to what is already acquaintance. Behavior and thinking become rigid and persevering, often making survival and adaptation difficult.

Data extracted from the investigation: effects of injuries in the prefrontal

Different investigations have reported that part of the brain areas linked to our belief systems are are linked to one of the most relevant brain regions for the performance and social functioning of the being human: the frontal cortex.

Specifically, a link has been detected between the ability to reorganize our cognition and beliefs based on experience and to accept new possibilities and the prefrontal area ventromedial. This area helps regulate emotional perception and expression and has a strong implication in the management of motivation, the response to the environment and human creativity.

Lesions in this area have shown to decrease creative capacity and the imagination of the human being, in addition to his mental flexibility and the possibility of visualizing and understanding new perspectives. Openness to experience, one of the main personality traits, is also greatly reduced.

However, it must be taken into account that the data has been extracted from the analysis of a limited sample of different veterans of the Vietnam War with or without injuries. cerebral disorders, which implies that they are mostly North American males of a certain age and cultural characteristics and experiences and beliefs concrete. In this way, the results can hardly be generalized to other cultures, religions or subjects with other characteristics.

Implications of these investigations

It is important to take into account that the data reflected by these investigations refer to the presence of fanaticism and the relationship between it and the loss of mental flexibility derived from injuries cerebral. It is not about attacking religious beliefs, which are still a way of trying to organize and explain the world, which is not the intention of this article or of the investigations from which it starts.

Nor should it be considered that all people who have a high level of religious fanaticism suffer from brain lesions or prefrontal problems, there is a great environmental and educational influence in the emergence and development of the ability to see and accept new perspectives or the difficulty to do so.

What these investigations do reflect is that certain brain injuries can cause a loss of cognitive flexibility that can lead to fanaticism. And not only religious, but also to that linked to other types of stimulations or beliefs.

This research could help to locate which brain areas are linked to beliefs and open-mindedness and contribute to establishing strategies and mechanisms from which to be able to treat the presence of disorders in which mental rigidity and other alterations derived from injuries and diseases.

Bibliographic references:

• Zhong, W.; Cristofori, I.; Bulbulia, J.; Krueger F. & Grafman, J. (2017). Biological and cognitive underpinnings of religious fundamentalism. Neuropsychology., 100. 18-25.