Mario Beauregard (born 1962) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

cognitive neuroscientist who is affiliated with the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

's psychology department. He is known for arguing that matter is not all that exists, writing that "Along with an increasing number of scientists, I believe vehemently that the materialist framework is not science." For this reason, he contends that the mind and the brain are fundamentally separate entities.

Education and career

Beauregard received his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from the

University of Montreal A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

in Canada. He later did postdoctoral research at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

and

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

Montreal Neurological Institute The McGill University Health Centre (MUHC; french: Centre universitaire de santé McGill) is one of two major healthcare networks in the city of Montreal, Quebec. It is affiliated with McGill University and is one of the largest medical complex in ...

Work

While working at the University of Montreal, Beauregard and his graduate student, Vincent Paquette, conducted a study using

fMRI Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow. This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area o ...

to examine the brains of nuns reliving mystical experiences. They found that there was no single spot involved in mediating these experiences, but that instead, multiple brain regions and systems were involved. He has also studied the brain activity of people who are reliving

near-death experience A near-death experience (NDE) is a profound personal experience associated with death or impending death which researchers claim share similar characteristics. When positive, such experiences may encompass a variety of sensations including detac ...

s they have previously had. He has said that this research seems to indicate that these experiences have "triggered something at a neural level in the brain." He has also written multiple books, including ''The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul'', which he co-authored with Denyse O'Leary and was published in 2007. He also published another book, ''Brain Wars: The Scientific Battle Over the Existence of the Mind and the Proof That Will Change the Way We Live Our Lives'', in 2012. In this book, he contends that the mind and brain are fundamentally distinct from one another. Among the lines of evidence he cites to support this view are the effects that one's thoughts and beliefs can have on the course of diseases like

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

and

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beauregard, Mario 1962 births Canadian cognitive neuroscientists Academic staff of the Université de Montréal Université de Montréal alumni Living people