Monday, March 31, 2014

Effect of mind on brain activity

Here is a study which empirically connects the mind and beliefs to brain responses. In other words, the mind is influencing matter.
"Mental functions and processes involved in diverse forms of psychotherapy exert a significant influence on brain activity. With regard to the placebo effect, beliefs and expectations can markedly modulate neurophysiological and neurochemical activity in brain regions involved in perception, movement, pain and various aspects of emotion processing. The findings of the neuroimaging studies reviewed here strongly support the view that the subjective nature and the intentional content of mental processes significantly influence the various levels of brain functioning (e.g. molecular, cellular, neural circuit) and brain plasticity."
H.T.atheistcrimes

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I wonder what kind of evidence a pathological Skeptic can produce to debunk this study?
The usual retorts are...in no particular order:
1.allegations of fraud
2.delusion
3.selection or confirmation bias
4.the experimenter lacks proper credentials
5.the patients or subjects were lying
6.Harris or some other Atheist has already criticized the study in an article,therefore it's debunked. (although Harris et al will never actually debate them for eg. the Dr.Eben Alexander case)