title: Neural correlates of religious experience.
abstract: The commonsense view of religious experience is that it is a preconceptual, immediate affective event. Work in philosophy and psychology, however, suggest that religious experience is an attributional cognitive phenomenon. Here the neural correlates of a religious experience are investigated using functional neuroimaging. During religious recitation, self-identified religious subjects activated a frontal-parietal circuit, composed of the dorsolateral prefrontal, dorsomedial frontal and medial parietal cortex. Prior studies indicate that these areas play a profound role in sustaining reflexive evaluation of thought. Thus, religious experience may be a cognitive process which, nonetheless, feels immediate.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Germany. nazari@du.edu
authors.forename: N P
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Azari
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nickel
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wunderlich
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Niedeggen
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hefter
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tellmann
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Herzog
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Stoerig
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Birnbacher
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Seitz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D012067:Religion; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed