Association between scripture memorization and brain atrophy using magnetic resonance imaging

Abstract

We investigated the association between scripture memorization and brain tissue using magnetic resonance imaging techniques.Participants comprised 63 healthy adults between the ages of 35 and 80 years old with no neurological or psychological disorders.Of these, 19 had completely memorized the Quran, 28 had partially memorized parts of Quran while 16, the control group, had not committed the Quran into their memory. White matter, grey matter and cerebrospinal fluid volumes were calculated. The brain tissue volumes of those who memorized the entire Quran and those who memorized only a small portion were compared with the control group using one-way ANOVA implemented in SPSS. There was no significant effect of age between the three groups (p>0.50). The group who completely memorized the Quran had larger grey matter and white matter volumes than the control group.Our results showed that those who memorized scripture had more brain tissues preserved compared with those who had not memorized scripture. These findings suggest that engaging our brains by memorizing scripture may increase brain health.

Volume of Interest-Based Fractal Analysis of Huffaz’s Brain

“…The current sample size of 47, with 23 being huffaz, may limit the generalisation of the outcomes of this research work. It is noteworthy to highlight that this sample size is comparable to similar studies which recruited 19 huffaz [10] and 21 pandits [11].…”

“…In one study [10], 19 huffaz were recruited to investigate the relationship between structural change in the brain and text memorization. It was found that the huffaz group had larger total grey and white matter volumes than the controls.…”

“…Similarly, a VBM analysis was conducted on 21 professionally qualified pandits who memorised at least ~40,000 words of Hindu text and 21 controls from a technical college to match the pandit participants in gender, age, and the number of languages spoken [11]. Both studies [10,11] did not match the text memorisers in terms of educational background and fractal measurement was not implemented in the analysis.…”

The Impact of Listening to, Reciting, or Memorizing the Quran on Physical and Mental Health of Muslims: Evidence From Systematic Review

“…This systematic review involved 2,566 participants for articles published between inceptions and April 2021. The study designs were RCT or experimental studies ( n = 7) [ 5 , 12 – 16 , 26 ], quasi-experimental studies ( n = 5) [ 17 – 21 ] and observational studies ( n = 8) [ 8 , 22 – 26 , 28 , 29 ] ( Table1 ).…”

“…One study assessed the effect of reciting the al- Quran on behaviors of mind [ 5 ]. Meanwhile, seven studies assessed the effect of memorizing al- Quran on memory capacity [ 23 ], health status [ 8 ] depression [ 28 ], brain tissue [ 29 ], QoL [ 22 ] and intelligent quotient (IQ) [ 24 , 26 ].…”