People with brain lesions are more susceptible to religious fundamentalism, according to a study authored by a Harvard University neurology instructor.

Michael Ferguson, an instructor at Harvard Medical School, published a paper along with several other academic experts on brain research about the impact of religious fundamentalism on those with brain lesions.

Brain lesions aren’t isolated to brain tumors. Those with congenital disorders, degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer’s, Lewy body dementia, and Parkinson’s can add to brain cell death or malfunction, The Cleveland Clinic explains. There are also immune and inflammatory conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or lupus, that can lead to lesions in the brain. Problems like epilepsy, a stroke, traumatic brain injury or brain aneurysms can all cause brain lesions.

“The whole brain functional connectivity pattern was then correlated with religious fundamentalism scores on a voxelwise basis,” wrote Ferguson in a thread on X using a number of illustrations.

“Even when […]