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. 2009 Jun;4(2):199-207.
doi: 10.1093/scan/nsn050. Epub 2009 Feb 25.

Highly religious participants recruit areas of social cognition in personal prayer

Uffe Schjoedt  1 , Hans Stødkilde-Jørgensen, Armin W Geertz, Andreas Roepstorff
Affiliations

Highly religious participants recruit areas of social cognition in personal prayer

Uffe Schjoedt et al. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2009 Jun.

Abstract

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how performing formalized and improvised forms of praying changed the evoked BOLD response in a group of Danish Christians. Distinct from formalized praying and secular controls, improvised praying activated a strong response in the temporopolar region, the medial prefrontal cortex, the temporo-parietal junction and precuneus. This finding supports our hypothesis that religious subjects, who consider their God to be 'real' and capable of reciprocating requests, recruit areas of social cognition when they pray. We argue that praying to God is an intersubjective experience comparable to 'normal' interpersonal interaction.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
To the left: Personal praying relative to making wishes to Santa Claus. Results are thresholded at P < 0.05 corrected for multiple comparisons (FDR) with an extended threshold of 15 voxels. To the right: effect size analysis of the regions of interest in the four conditions relative to baseline (90% CI). (A) Precuneus. (B) Temporo-parietal junction. (C) Anterior medial prefrontal cortex. (D) Temporopolar region.
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