Changing Behavior and Renewing the Brain: A Study of College Students

The field of neuroscience and religion continues to explode as researchers seek to understand religious experiences in the brain. Studies in religious experience, called neurotheology, attempt to draw conclusions about the truth of these religious experiences from the study of biological brain events. Given the substantial research on the science of religion, this article explores the physiological changes of college students engaged in regular spiritual practices. Students were asked to engage in intentional spiritual formational practices, such as prayer, meditation, Scripture reading, and contemplation, to see if these practices impacted their physiological activities, including brain wave, heart rate, skin response (sweat), and reaction time changes. A variety of neuropsychological measures such as the Beck Depression Inventory, State/Trait Anxiety Scale, heart beats per minute, galvanic skin response, and electrophysiological encephalography measures were gathered at the beginning and the end of the course to measure physiological activity. The purpose was to discover whether students’ physiological measures changed as a result of spiritual formation practices. This study has implications for Christian educators: As persons engage in regular contemplative practices, this can result in behavioral changes in the brain

Fairness and Appeasement: Achievement and Affiliation Motives in Interpersonal Relations

Subjects who were high on achievement or affiliation needs and who performed relatively well or poorly on a spatial orientation task were asked to distribute rewards between themselves and either an equitable, egalitarian, self-serving, or generous programmed partner. In general, regardless of the partner\u27s behavior, subjects high in need for achievement demonstrated a general appreciation for performance differences and tended to allocate rewards equitably. Affiliation-oriented subjects, however, appeared to focus on the response tendencies of their partner and behave in kind; they divided points equitably with an equitable partner, equally with an egalitarian partner, and self-interestedly with a self-serving partner. Subjects high in both achievement and affiliation tended to exploit the generous partner. The results are explained in terms of the competitive and cooperative interpersonal styles that achievement-oriented and affiliation-oriented subjects, respectively, possess

FAS Behavioral Survey of Traits: Screening for Effects of Prenatal Exposure to Alcohol

The FAS BeST was developed by parents and educators of children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome rating behaviors characteristic of FASD including; easily influenced by others, difficulty learning from experience, appearing and declaring innocence even when confronted with evidence to the contrary, and experiencing difficulties in other domains. The FAS BeST differentiates between children with PEA, dysgenesis of the corpus callosum (DCC), and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; Porter & Andrews, 2004). The sample included 294 participants. Using the cutoff score suggested by Porter and Andrews (2004) the accuracy rates were 78% for FAS/E, 100% for controls, 85% for DCC, and 100% for ADHD. Reliability for the FASD BeST was established for all groups using split-half analysis. Criterion validity was verified using the Achenbach behavioral checklists (2002). A factor analysis indicated the FAS BeST denotes a general factor. The FAS BeST is a reliable and valid measure that is easily administered and scored. Children with PEA can be screened to determine whether further evaluation is warranted and differentiate between disorders with similar behaviors, enabling professionals to better serve the child and assist the care providers

Alzheimer\u27s Disease: The Relationship between P300 Latency and PET Scan Ratios

The P300 component of the auditory EEG event-related potential (ERP) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) were investigated in individuals considered to be early cases of probable Alzheimer\u27s type dementia (PAD) and a control group of similar age. Two questions were investigated: (a) The degree to which P300 latency was sensitive to neurocognitive changes in very early stages of PAD; and (b) The relationship between P300 latency and specific areas of reduced neural functions as reflected in PET scans. A significant difference was found between PAD and normal subjects in P300 latencies, with those in the patient group having longer P300 latencies than the control group. The P300 latencies were significantly correlated with cortical, but not subcortical, metabolic rates. The highest correlation was between P300 latency and pareital PET scores, with other significant correlations with P300 latency in the following order: frontal, temporal and parahippocampal. These data indicate that P300 latency is an index of the integrity of association cortex and, as such, is sensitive to the very early stages of Alzheimer\u27s dementia