Background: Electrical activity of the brain, resulting from electrochemical signaling between neurons, is recorded by electroencephalogram (EEG). The neural network has complex behavior at different levels that strongly confirms the nonlinear nature of interactions in the human brain. This study has been designed and implemented with the aim of determining the effects of religious beliefs and the effect of listening to Holy Quran on electrical activity of the brain of the Iranian Persian-speaking Muslim volunteers.
Methods: The brain signals of 47 Persian-speaking Muslim volunteers while listening to the Holy Quran consciously, and while listening to the Holy Quran and the Arabic text unconsciously were used. Therefore, due to the nonlinear nature of EEG signals, these signals are studied using approximate entropy, sample entropy, Hurst exponent, and Detrended Fluctuation Analysis.
Results: Statistical analysis of the results has shown that listening to the Holy Quran consciously increases approximate entropy and sample entropy, and decreases Hurst Exponent and Detrended Fluctuation Analysis compared to other cases.
Conclusion: Consciously listening to the Holy Quran decreases self-similarity and correlation of brain signal and instead increases complexity and dynamicity in the brain.
Keywords: Electroencephalogram; Holy Quran; nonlinear analysis.