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The article, “Religious factors and hippocampal atrophy in late life,” by Amy Owen and colleagues at Duke University represents an important advance in our growing understanding of the relationship between the brain and religion. The study showed greater atrophy in the hippocampus in individuals who identify with specific religious groups as well as those with no religious affiliation. It is a surprising result, given that many prior studies have shown religion to have potentially beneficial effects on brain function, anxiety, and depression.

For most of the past century the scientific consensus held that the adult human brain did not produce any new neurons. Researchers overturned that theory in the 1990s, but what role new neurons played in the adult human brain remained a mystery. Recent work now sug