title: Rewarding prayers.
abstract: We report a highly significant regional increase of the BOLD response in the caudate nucleus in a group of Danish Christians while performing silent religious prayer. The effect was found in a main-effect analysis of high-structured and low-structured religious recitals relative to comparable secular recitals and to a non-narrative baseline. This supports the hypothesis that religious prayer as a form of frequently recurring behavior is capable of stimulating the dopaminergic reward system in practicing individuals. It extends recent research which demonstrates a relation between interpersonal trust and activation in the dopaminergic system to also encompass relations to abstract entities.
authors.affiliation: Department of the Study of Religion, University of Aarhus, Denmark. uffeschjoedt@gmail.com
authors.forename: Uffe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Schjødt
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Stødkilde-Jørgensen
authors.forename: Armin W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Geertz
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Roepstorff
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D012067:Religion; D012201:Reward; D012653:Self Stimulation / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen