Virtual lesions of the inferior parietal and prefrontal cortex alter implicit religiousness and spirituality in healthy individuals

Belief in a higher power constitutes a core feature of religiousness and spirituality (RS), two ubiquitous aspects of human experience and behaviour that have long been considered impervious to scientific investigation. Recently, however, cognitive neuroscience studies have shown an association between RS experiences and neural activity in fronto-parietal regions. Much less is known on whether activity in the above areas is causally involved in modulating RS experiences or just epiphenomenal to them.