Side of Onset in Parkinson’s Disease and Alterations in Religiosity: Novel Behavioral Phenotypes

Behavioral neurologists have long been interested in changes in religiosity following circumscribed brain lesions. Ad- vances in neuroimaging and cognitive experimental techniques have been added to these classical lesion-correlationa l approaches in attempt to understand changes in religiosity due to brain damage. In this paper we assess processing dynamics of religious cognition in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). We adm inistered a four-condition story-based priming procedure, and then covertly probed for changes in religious belief. Story-bas ed priming emphasized mortality salience, religious ritual, and beauty in nature (Aesthetic). In neurologically intact controls, religious belief-scores significantly increased followin g the Aesthetic prime condition. When comparing effects of right (RO) versus left onset (LO) in PD patients, a double-dissociation in rel igious belief-scores emerged based on prime condition. RO patients exhibited a significant increase in belief following the Ae sthetic prime condition and LO patients significantly increased bel ief in the religious ritual prime condition. Results covari ed with executive function measures. This suggests lateral cerebral specialization for ritual-based (left frontal) versus a esthetic-based (right frontal) religious cognition. Patient-centered in dividualized treatment plans should take religiosity into consideration as a complex disease-associated phenomenon connected to other clinical variables and health outcomes.