ArticlePsychiatry investigation2022
Regional Brain Volume Changes in Catholic Nuns: A Cross-Sectional Study Using Deep Learning-Based Brain MRI Segmentation.
Article in Psychiatry investigation, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 3 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Neuroscience of Religious and Spiritual Practices: A Systematic Review of Neurotheological Evidence.Brain and behavior · 2026Pooled it
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveReligious behaviors are considered as complex brain-based phenomena that may be associated with structural brain change. To identify the pattern of regional brain volume change in nuns, we investigated structural alterations in the brains of nuns using a fast processing automated segmentation method based on deep learning algorithms.
methodsWe retrospectively reviewed the medical records of the catholic sisters between the ages of 31 and 80 who are members of the charity of St. Vincent de Paul of Korea. A total of 193 asymptomatic subjects (86 nuns and 107 control subjects) received comprehensive health screening and underwent brain MRI scans. We compared cortical and sub-cortical volume between groups across multiple locations using our in-house U-Net++ deep learning-based automatic segmentation tool.
resultsCompared to the control group, the nun group displayed increased gray matter volume in the right lingual cortex, left isthmus-cingulate, posterior-cingulate, rostral-middle-frontal, superior-frontal, supramarginal, temporal-pole cortices, and bilateral pars-triangularis cortices after correction for multiple comparisons. On the other hand, the nun group showed reduced gray matter volume in the temporal and parietal regions relative to healthy controls.
conclusionOur study suggests that spiritual practice may affect brain structure, especially in several frontal regions involved in a higher level of insight function.
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