Link: http://www.futurepun...869.html#001869
Date: 12-27-03
Author: Randall Parker
Source: FuturePundit.com
Serotonin Receptor Concentration Varies Inversely With Spirituality
A fascinating article published in the American Journal Of Psychiatry by Swedish medical researcher Lars Farde M.D., Ph.D. and colleagues from the Karolinska Institute have found that the concentration of serotonin receptors in the brain correlates inversely with spirituality. (same abstract here or here)
Jacqueline Borg, Bengt Andrée, Henrik Soderstrom, and Lars Farde
The Serotonin System and Spiritual Experiences
Am J Psychiatry 2003 160: 1965-1969.
METHOD: Fifteen normal male subjects, ages 20-45 years, were examined with PET and the radioligand [11C]WAY100635. Personality traits were assessed with the Swedish version of the Temperament and Character Inventory self-report questionnaire. Binding potential, an index for the density of available 5-HT1A receptors, was calculated for the dorsal raphe nuclei, the hippocampal formation, and the neocortex. For each region, correlation coefficients between 5-HT1A receptor binding potential and Temperament and Character Inventory personality dimensions were calculated and analyzed in two-tailed tests for significance. RESULTS: The authors found that the binding potential correlated inversely with scores for self-transcendence, a personality trait covering religious behavior and attitudes. No correlations were found for any of the other six Temperament and Character Inventory dimensions. The self-transcendence dimension consists of three distinct subscales, and further analysis showed that the subscale for spiritual acceptance correlated significantly with binding potential but not with the other two subscales. CONCLUSIONS: This finding in normal male subjects indicated that the serotonin system may serve as a biological basis for spiritual experiences. The authors speculated that the several-fold variability in 5-HT1A receptor density may explain why people vary greatly in spiritual zeal.
Are there particular alleles in genes that cause different humans to have different numbers of serotonin receptors? Do more spiritual people, on average, have genetic variations that make them produce fewer serotonon receptors per nerve cell or fewer nerve cells that make serotonin receptors?
Currently, are spiritual people having more children than non-spiritual people? Therefore, are the alleles that increase serotonin receptor concentrations being selected against? Is the extent to which spiritualism correlates with larger family size different in different societies? So are some societies being selected for to be more spiritual more than other societies?
To reiterate an argument I've made in the past: Once it becomes possible to control what genetic variations people pass on to their offspring and once genetic variations are discovered that alter personality then at that point the average personality types born to people of different regions, countries, occupations, economic classes, and religious beliefs will diverge. People will make decisions to make their children more like what they want ideal children to be. Imagine religious believers choosing to make their children have personalities that are highly spiritual while at the same time scientists and engineers choose to have children who are highly rational and skeptical. This could lead to genetic religious wars.
If people in some regions of the world decide to make their children more spiritual and other regions make their children more rational and skeptical then one can imagine wars being fought as a result of conflicts of values that flow from fundamental differences in brain wiring. One can also imagine wars fought to stop the people or governments of opposing countries from creating offspring that are either seen as a security threat (e.g. a highly willing deeply spiritual suicide martyr personality type) or as a blasphemy against god.
-Randall Parker
