DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.16751851
title: Healing Study Beres et al. - Part 2: fMRI Changes after meeting a Chaplain coupled with Biblical Readings and Recalling the Visits with Audiotapes among Hospitalized Patients

description: Healing Study Beres et al.: A Clinical Study to evaluate Potential Psychological-, Neurological- and Immunological Effects of a Visit by a Chaplain coupled with Biblical Readings among Hospitalized Patients.<br><br><br>The authors pre-screened hospitalized participants to find those who were the most in need of an intervention by a chaplain. A passage from the Bible was read to the participants during a meeting with the chaplain at the bedside, or in the chapel of the hospital. <br>The pace of enrollment was deliberately slow in order to assure the authenticity of the visits ("slow science"). <br>Part 1: blood samples were taken 30 minutes prior, and 60 minutes after the meeting to measure White Blood Cell (WBC)-, lymphocyte counts, interferon gamma (IFN-γ)-, immunoglobulin M (IgM)-, immunoglobulin A (IgA)-, immunoglobulin G (IgG)-, and complement C3 levels. Raw psychological parameters were estimated with the usage of "Healing Questionnaires" designed for the Study, containing single-item rating scales in order to record assessements by the patients and the chaplain separately; PSS-14 Scale was also used in the groups at the chapel.<br>Psychological and immunological raw data and the corresponding co-authors are published in a previous dataset (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16750384).<br>Part 2: a subgroup of the visited participants was subjected to functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), where they were played an audiotape of readings of the same passage from the Bible. Change in fMRI activation was measured wih Statistical Parametric Mapping analysis of Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) answers.<br>To examine the regions of brain that could be impacted by the current measurement, we performed fMRI measurements using a “block-design” technique in three functional states:<br><br>- In the active (“a”) block, patients could listen to the same passage from the Bible that they heard at the bedside or in the hospital’s chapel. They could hear the biblical reading once again read by the chaplain, on their native language (Hungarian) and in modern translation. <br>- In the control (“s”) block, the stimulus was a scientific text from audiotape, also read by the chaplain ("semleges" is the Hungarian for "neutral") . Although this text was intelligible, it contained may difficult scientific words, and complex grammatical structures in Hungarian (a Finno-Ugric language) – posing an intellectual challenge for patients. <br>- For reference state, we introduced a silence ("c") block ("csend" is the Hungarian for "silent").<br>During the measurements, the "block design" -type stimulation was performed in the "c → as → ac → as → ac → as → ac → as" sequence order for all patients. <br>The MRI examinations were performed using a 1.5T Siemens Magnetom Avanto MR scanner (Syngo software versionVB17/A, Siemens Medical Solutions, Erlangen, Germany), for the timing of the stimulation and synchronization of data collection, Nordic Aktiva v1.1. equipment (Nordic Neurolab, Bergen, Norway) was used.<br>For all patients enrolled, a structural 3D T1-weighted axial MP-RAGE recording (TE=4.73 ms, TR=1540 ms, TI=800 ms, flip angle=15°, slice-thickness 0.8 mm, 0.9x0.9x0.9 mm voxel-size) and a 3 sec. repetition time, 145 components’ Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) recording sequence (T2* gradient echo, TR=3000ms, TE=42 ms, flip angle = 90°, interleaved 4 mm axial slice thickness, 3.6x3.6 pixel size) was performed. <br>LEGEND of file names:- each file name begins with patient number (for ex.: "h208"),- "rfmri" corresponds to raw fMRI datasets, "t1" corresponds to T1 datasets.