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Theism & prejudice decreased by magnetic energy & How do we sense magnetic fields?

#1
C C Offline
Research that is simply beyond belief

RELEASE: New research involving a psychologist from the University of York has revealed for the first time that both belief in God and prejudice towards immigrants can be reduced by directing magnetic energy into the brain.

Dr Keise Izuma collaborated with a team from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to carry out an innovative experiment using transcranial magnetic stimulation, a safe way of temporarily shutting down specific regions of the brain.

The researchers targeted the posterior medial frontal cortex, a part of the brain located near the surface and roughly a few inches up from the forehead that is associated with detecting problems and triggering responses that address them.

In the study, half of the participants received a low-level "sham" procedure that did not affect their brains, and half received enough energy to lower activity in the target brain area. Next, all of the participants were first asked to think about death, and then were asked questions about their religious beliefs and their feelings about immigrants.

The findings, published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, reveal that people in whom the targeted brain region was temporarily shut down reported 32.8% less belief in God, angels, or heaven. They were also 28.5% more positive in their feelings toward an immigrant who criticised their country.

Dr Izuma, from the University's Department of Psychology, said: "People often turn to ideology when they are confronted by problems. We wanted to find out whether a brain region that is linked with solving concrete problems, like deciding how to move one's body to overcome an obstacle, is also involved in solving abstract problems addressed by ideology."

This interest in the brain basis of ideology led the team to focus on religion and nationalism.

Dr Izuma added: "We decided to remind people of death because previous research has shown that people turn to religion for comfort in the face of death. As expected, we found that when we experimentally turned down the posterior medial frontal cortex, people were less inclined to reach for comforting religious ideas despite having been reminded of death."

The investigators asked participants to respond to both negative and positive emotional aspects of religion and of nationalism. Specifically, they rated belief in the Devil, demons, and Hell, in addition to God, angels, and heaven. All potential participants were pre-screened to make sure that they held religious convictions before beginning the experiment.

With regard to nationalistic ideology, the participants read two essays ostensibly written by recent immigrants. One essay was extremely complimentary toward the United States, and the other essay was extremely critical.

The investigators found that the magnetic stimulation had the greatest effect on reactions to the critical author.

"We think that hearing criticisms of your group's values, perhaps especially from a person you perceive as an outsider, is processed as an ideological sort of threat," said Dr Izuma.

"One way to respond to such threats is to 'double down' on your group values, increasing your investment in them, and reacting more negatively to the critic," he continued.

"When we disrupted the brain region that usually helps detect and respond to threats, we saw a less negative, less ideologically motivated reaction to the critical author and his opinions."

Dr Colin Holbrook, from UCLA and the lead author of the paper, added: "These findings are very striking, and consistent with the idea that brain mechanisms that evolved for relatively basic threat-response functions are repurposed to also produce ideological reactions. However, more research is needed to understand exactly how and why religious beliefs and ethnocentric attitudes were reduced in this experiment."

The scientists say that whether we're trying to clamber over a fallen tree that we find in our path, find solace in religion, or resolve issues related to immigration, our brains are using the same basic mental machinery.

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Sixth sense: How do we sense electric fields?

RELEASE: A variety of animals are able to sense and react to electric fields, and living human cells will move along an electric field, for example in wound healing. Now a team lead by Min Zhao at the UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures has found the first actual "sensor mechanism" that allows a living cell detect an electric field. The work is published Oct. 9 in the journal Nature Communications.

"We believe there are several types of sensing mechanisms, and none of them are known. We now provide experimental evidence to suggest one which has not been even hypothesized before, a two-molecule sensing mechanism," Zhao said.

Zhao and colleagues have been studying these "electric senses" in cells from both larger animals (fish skin cells, human cell lines) and in the soil-dwelling amoeba Dictyostelium. By knocking out some genes in Dictyostelium, they previously identified some of the genes and proteins that allow the amoeba to move in a certain direction when exposed to an electric field.

In the new work, carried out in a human cell line, they found that two elements, a protein called Kir4.2 (made by gene KCNJ15) and molecules within the cell called polyamines, were needed for signaling to occur. Kir4.2 is a potassium channel -- it forms a pore through the cell membrane that allows potassium ions to enter the cell. Such ion channels are often involved in transmitting signals into cells. Polyamines are molecules within the cell that carry a positive charge.

Zhao and colleagues found that when the cells were in an electric field, the positively-charged polyamines tend to accumulate at the side of the cell near the negative electrode. The polyamines bind to the Kir4.2 potassium channel, and regulate its activity.

He cautioned that they do not yet have definitive evidence of how "switching" of the potassium channel by polyamines translates into directional movement by the cell.
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#2
Magical Realist Offline
Perhaps there is enough magnetism from an MRI to cure prejudiced people. Cue Clockwork Orange scenario of routine MRIs for old bigots and religious fanatics. ("uh yeah...we need to check your brain again Mr. Bunker. Just a routine check-up!")
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#3
Yazata Offline
I expect that if this kind of brain stimulation reduces psychological responses to perceived problems, it would work on left-wing views as well as right-wing ones. There would probably be less concern about 'racism', 'sexism', 'homophobia' and 'saving the planet' too. (It isn't just conservatives who are prone to perceiving problems and threats.)

I'm skeptical about the claims regarding theism. After all, theism doesn't represent a problem in the minds of theists. The idea that theism is a problem is more of an atheist idea.

So I suspect that this is some left-wing professors projecting their own prejudices onto their subjects in hopes of pathologizing views that they happen to disagree with. If you believe in God, or think that foreigners need to obey US immigration law, then your brain must be misfiring. It can't be a thoughtful, reasoned view.
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