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Chapter 2 - On Decentering

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2022

Patrick McNamara
Patrick McNamara
Affiliation:
Boston University
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Summary

Chapter two reviews work on the decentering mechanism presented in the first edition and which is theorised to be central to religious experience. Decentering is seen as a special case of Bayesian surprise. Neurologically surprize triggers an orienting reaction composed of PGO waves and elements of REM sleep. Belief-updating during decentering includes generation of multiple counterfactual simulations to correct the error signal generated by the surprise event.

Keywords

decenteringaterior cingulate gyrusprecuneusdefault mode networksurprisalbelief-updatingPGO waves
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cognitive Neuroscience of Religious Experience
Decentering and the Self
 , pp. 23 - 53
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • On Decentering
  • Patrick McNamara, Boston University
  • Book: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Religious Experience
  • Online publication: 02 June 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108973496.003
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  • On Decentering
  • Patrick McNamara, Boston University
  • Book: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Religious Experience
  • Online publication: 02 June 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108973496.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • On Decentering
  • Patrick McNamara, Boston University
  • Book: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Religious Experience
  • Online publication: 02 June 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108973496.003
Available formats
×