Communiversity

WEDNESDAY, May 25 (HealthDay News) -- Older adults who say they've had a life-changing religious experience are more likely to have a greater decrease in size of the hippocampus, the part of the brain critical to learning and memory, new research finds.
According to the study, people who said they were a "born-again" Protestant or Catholic, or conversely, those who had no religious affiliation, had more hippocampal shrinkage (or "atrophy") compared to people who identified themselves as Protestants, but not born-again.
The study is published online in PLoS ONE.
As people age, a certain amount of brain atrophy is expected. Shrinkage of the hippocampus is also associated with depression, dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
In the study, researchers asked 268 people aged 58 to 84 about their religious affiliation, spiritual practices and life-changing religious experiences. Over the course of two to eight years, changes to the hippocampus were monitored using MRI scans.
The researchers suggested that stress over holding religious beliefs that fall outside of the mainstream may help explain the findings.
"One interpretation of our finding -- that members of majority religious groups seem to have less atrophy compared with minority religious groups -- is that when you feel your beliefs and values are somewhat at odds with those of society as a whole, it may contribute to long-term stress that could have implications for the brain," Amy Owen, lead author of the study and a research associate at Duke University Medical Center, said in a Duke news release.
The study authors also suggested that life-changing religious experiences could challenge a person's established religious beliefs, triggering stress.
"Other studies have led us to think that whether a new experience you consider spiritual is interpreted as comforting or stressful may depend on whether or not it fits in with your existing religious beliefs and those of the people around you," David Hayward, research associate at Duke University Medical Center, added. "Especially for older adults, these unexpected new experiences may lead to doubts about long-held religious beliefs, or to disagreements with friends and family."
The researchers noted other factors related to hippocampal atrophy, such as age, depression or brain size, as well as other religious factors such as prayer or meditation, could not explain the study's findings.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke provides details on brain atrophy (http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/cerebral_atrophy/cerebral_atrophy.htm).

http://www.ivillage.com/being-born-again-linked-more-brain-atrophy-study/4-a-353185#ixzz1RagdIC6B (http://www.ivillage.com/being-born-again-linked-more-brain-atrophy-study/4-a-353185#ixzz1RagdIC6B)

What is Cerebral Atrophy?

Cerebral atrophy is a common feature of many of the diseases that affect the brain. Atrophy of any tissue means loss of cells. In brain tissue, atrophy describes a loss of neurons and the connections between them. Atrophy can be generalized, which means that all of the brain has shrunk; or it can be focal, affecting only a limited area of the brain and resulting in a decrease of the functions that area of the brain controls. If the cerebral hemispheres (the two lobes of the brain that form the cerebrum) are affected, conscious thought and voluntary processes may be impaired.
Associated Diseases/Disorders: The pattern and rate of progression of cerebral atrophy depends on the disease involved. Diseases that cause cerebral atrophy include:
'"

n".self::process_list_items("'.str_replace('
', '', '

• stroke and traumatic brain injury
  
• Alzheimer's disease, Pick's disease, and fronto-temporal dementia
  
• cerebral palsy, in which lesions (damaged areas) may impair motor coordination
  
• Huntington's disease, and other hereditary diseases that are associated with genetic mutations
  
• leukodystrophies, such as Krabbe disease, which destroy the myelin sheath that protects axons
  
• mitochondrial encephalomyopathies, such as Kearns-Sayre syndrome, which interfere with the basic functions of neurons
  
• multiple sclerosis, which causes inflammation, myelin damage, and lesions in cerebral tissue
  
• infectious diseases, such as encephalitis, neurosyphilis, and AIDS, in which an infectious agent or the inflammatory reaction to it destroys neurons and their axons
  ').'")."n

"'
Symptoms of cerebral atrophy: Many diseases that cause cerebral atrophy are associated with dementia, seizures, and a group of language disorders called the apheurasias.
'"

n".self::process_list_items("'.str_replace('
', '', '

• Dementia is characterized by a progressive impairment of memory and intellectual function that is severe enough to interfere with social and work skills. Memory, orientation, abstraction, ability to learn, visual-spatial perception, and higher executive functions such as planning, organizing, and sequencing may also be impaired.
  
• Seizures can take different forms, appearing as disorientation, repetitive movements, loss of consciousness, or convulsions.
  
• Apheurasias are a group of disorders characterized by disturbances in speaking and understanding language. Receptive apheurasia causes impaired comprehension. Expressive apheurasia is reflected in odd choices of words, the use of partial phrases, disjointed clauses, and incomplete sentences.
  ').'")."n

"'

What research is being done?

The NINDS funds research looking at many of the diseases and disorders that cause cerebral atrophy. Understanding the biological mechanisms that cause neurons to die in the brain will help researchers find ways to prevent, treat, and even cure the diseases that lead to cerebral atrophy.

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/cerebral_atrophy/cerebral_atrophy.htm (http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/cerebral_atrophy/cerebral_atrophy.htm)