"Neuromodulation of Group Prejudice and Religious Belief." Could this defeat ISIS?

josephryan1989

A fascinating paper has been published in the Journal Of Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience:

People cleave to ideological convictions with greater intensity in the aftermath of threat. The posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) plays a key role in both detecting discrepancies between desired and current conditions and adjusting subsequent behavior to resolve such conflicts. Building on prior literature examining the role of the pMFC in shifts in relatively low-level decision processes, we demonstrate that the pMFC mediates adjustments in adherence to political and religious ideologies. We presented participants with a reminder of death and a critique of their in-group ostensibly written by a member of an out-group, then experimentally decreased both avowed belief in God and out-group derogation by down-regulating pMFC activity via transcranial magnetic stimulation. The results provide the first evidence that group prejudice and religious belief are susceptible to targeted neuromodulation, and point to a shared cognitive mechanism underlying concrete and abstract decision processes. We discuss the implications of these findings for further research characterizing the cognitive and affective mechanisms at play.

http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/09/03/scan.nsv107.abstract

Could this lead to the development of non-lethal weapons that could be used to zap captured terrorists' brains and destroy their extremist religious beliefs?

From religious tradition we know that figures such as Moses, Jesus, Paul and Muhammad underwent a profound religious experience that turned them into prophets. Moses saw a burning bush, Jesus saw the Holy Spirit descend like a dove, Paul fell from his horse and was struck blind when he heard the voice of Jesus and Muhammad heard the voice of Gabriel which dictated to him the Quran.

Did these men actually experience seizures and psychotic episodes or brain injuries with results that they interpreted as supernatural?

Therefore if a weapon could be developed that could zap the brains of terrorists it might defeat Islamic extremism.

ancapailldorcha

This isn't really a Politics thread.