title: Excitatory stimulation of the right inferior parietal cortex lessens implicit religiousness/spirituality.
abstract: Although religiousness and spirituality (RS) are considered two fundamental constituents of human life, neuroscientific investigation has long avoided the study of their neurocognitive basis. Nevertheless, recent investigations with brain imaging and brain damaged patients, and more recently with brain stimulation methods, have documented important associations between RS beliefs and experiences and frontoparietal neural activity. In this study, we further investigated how individuals' implicit RS self-representations can be modulated by changes in right inferior parietal lobe (IPL) excitability, a key region associated to RS. To this end, we combined continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS), intermittent TBS (iTBS), and sham TBS with RS-related, Implicit Association Test (IAT) and with a control self-esteem (SE) IAT in a group of fourteen healthy adult individuals. A specific decrease of implicit RS, as measured with the IAT effect, was induced by increasing IPL excitability with iTBS; conversely cTBS, which is supposedly inhibitory, left participants' implicit RS unchanged. The performance in the control SE-IAT was left unchanged by any TBS stimulation. These data showed the causative role of right IPL functional state in mediating plastic changes of implicit RS. Implications of these results are also discussed in the light of the variability of behavioral effects associated with TBS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Sciences, University of Udine, Via Margreth 3, 33100 Udine, Italy; Department of Psychology, University of Rome "La Sapienza", Rome, Italy. Electronic address: cristiano.crescentini@uniud.it.
authors.forename: Cristiano
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Crescentini
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Sciences, University of Udine, Via Margreth 3, 33100 Udine, Italy.
authors.forename: Marilena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Di Bucchianico
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Sciences, University of Udine, Via Margreth 3, 33100 Udine, Italy; Perceptual Robotics (PERCRO) Laboratory, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fabbro
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Sciences, University of Udine, Via Margreth 3, 33100 Udine, Italy.
authors.forename: Cosimo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Urgesi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D004576:Electromyography; D019054:Evoked Potentials, Motor / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D012067:Religion; D029181:Spirituality; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: IAT; Religiousness–spirituality; Right parietal lobe; Self-esteem; Theta-burst TMS