Science can't say whether God represents a loving, vengeful or nonexistent being. But researchers have revealed for the first time how such religious beliefs trigger different parts of the brain.

Brain scans showed that participants fell back on higher thought patterns when reacting to religious statements, whether trying to figure out God's thoughts and emotions or thinking about metaphorical meaning behind religious teachings.

"That suggests that religion is not a special case of a belief system, but evolved along with other belief and social cognitive abilities," said Jordan Grafman, a cognitive neuroscientist at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland.

Such results fit with previous research which shows that no single "God spot" exists in the brain. Both believers and nonbelievers participated in the new study, detailed in this week's issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A first part of the study established a range or spectrum of religious beliefs relating to God's perceived involvement in this world, God's perceived emotion, and personal experiences as opposed to abstract doctrine. The second part examined how participants responded to religious statements reflecting those beliefs, with the help of fMRI scanners.

The brain scans showed that people use known, higher-function brain regions to sort out their thoughts on God and religion. For instance, parts of the brain linked with theory of mind (ToM) lit up when trying to understand a supposedly detached God's intentions – although individual minds varied wildly when pondering a more involved God.

A possible explanation: "Probably because we would tend to use theory of mind when we were puzzled, concerned, or threatened by another’s behavior," Grafman told LiveScience.

People again relied on theory of mind, as well as brain regions that detect emotion through facial expression and language, when they read statements reflecting God's anger. Statements of God's love stimulated regions connected with positive emotions and suppression of sadness

Unsurprisingly, statements of religious doctrine activated parts of the brain that help decode metaphor and abstractness. That contrasted with statements reflecting religious experience, which prodded the brain to retrieve memories and imagery of self in action.

Even statements that believers or nonbelievers disagreed with produced intriguing results.

"Reading a statement that you have been asked to compare your own personal beliefs with certainly will activate your own belief system," Grafman pointed out. He and his colleagues observed brain regions relating to disgust or conflict lighting up in response.

One question that remains unanswered is whether religion evolved as a central functional preoccupation for human brains in early societies, or whether it simply relied on brain regions which had evolved for other types of thought-processing.

Future research may also try to see if human brains respond similarly for different religions, given that this study focused only on Western Christian beliefs.

"The more interesting studies will wind up comparing different belief systems with similar dimensions to see if they also activate the same brain areas," Grafman said. "If they do, we can better define why those brain areas evolved in humans."

雖然從科學角度不能說上帝是仁慈的、報復心強的或不存在的。但是研究人員首次發現，宗教信仰確實能激發大腦不同的區域。

腦部掃描顯示，當受試者對宗教語性語句產生反應時，大腦就進入了高級思維的模式，這可能表明大腦正在極力揣測上帝的想法與情感，或是正在捉摸宗教教義背后的真實隱喻。

這種宗教信仰的高級思維模式并不是一種信仰體系中的特例，它是伴隨其他信仰和社會認知能力一起進化的，”美國馬里蘭州貝塞斯達國立神經與腦卒中疾病研究院的認知神經科學家喬丹·葛夫曼說。

上述結論正好驗證了以往的研究，由信徒與非信徒受試者參與的新研究表明，大腦中的“上帝點”并不是僅僅局限于一點，這一研究成果詳細地登載本周出版的《美國國家科學院學報》上。

研究的第一步，首先確定針對受試宗教的研究范圍，包括對上帝的感知、對宗教信仰的感知，以及與非抽象教義截然不同的自身宗教實踐的感受。研究的第二步，是借助功能磁共振成像掃描儀，驗證受試者對這些宗教性語句的反映。

腦部掃描顯示，受試者在試圖理解上帝意圖與宗教思想時，大腦中上述負責高級思維的區域被激發。例如，當受試者試圖理解據稱是超然的上帝意圖時，負責心理理論思維的那部分大腦區域被激活—雖然受試者在思考深奧的上帝意圖時，想法可能形形色色而且可能趨于荒誕。

對此現象一種可能的解釋是：“或許當人們感到疑惑、擔心，或者受到他人威脅時，往往會使用心理理論來處理問題，”葛夫曼對美國《生命科學》網站說。

當受試者讀到反映上帝憤怒的語句時，往往會激活大腦心理理論區域及識別面部表情與語言的區域，當讀到反映上帝慈愛的語句時，會激活大腦負責積極情緒與抑制悲傷情緒的區域。

其實，宗教教義的語句激活了負責解釋隱喻與抽象概念那部分大腦區域。與宗教實踐的感受相比，宗教教義語句更能激發大腦自身的記憶系統與自身的意象系統，使其積極參與活動。

即使教徒或者非教徒自身感受不同，但是這一結論足以令人關注。

葛夫曼說：“每當受試者讀到一個宗教語句時，都會調動自身的個人信仰系統，這無疑會使大腦中的個人信仰系統更加活躍”。葛夫曼與他的同事注意到，在宗教儀式對領禱人應答時，負責厭惡情緒和抵觸情緒那部分大腦區域被激活

但仍有一個未解問題是，是否宗教促使早期社會人的大腦逐漸發生進化，使大腦具備了這種全神貫注的功能。

上述研究僅僅局限于西方的基督教，今后的研究也可以嘗試其它不同的宗教，檢查驗證人類是否也有同樣的反映。

這項令人關注的研究最終將會得到結論，用同樣的測試方法研究其它的宗教信仰，觀測人類的大腦是否是相同的區域被激活，”葛夫曼說，“如果受試者激發的區域相同，就可以肯定地說，正是由于不斷的進化，才使人類大腦相關區域具備了這些功能。