title: An initial fMRI study on neural correlates of prayer in members of Alcoholics Anonymous.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many individuals with alcohol-use disorders who had experienced alcohol craving before joining Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) report little or no craving after becoming long-term members. Their use of AA prayers may contribute to this. Neural mechanisms underlying this process have not been delineated.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To define experiential and neural correlates of diminished alcohol craving following AA prayers among members with long-term abstinence.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty AA members with long-term abstinence participated. Self-report measures and functional magnetic resonance imaging of differential neural response to alcohol-craving-inducing images were obtained in three conditions: after reading of AA prayers, after reading irrelevant news, and with passive viewing. Random-effects robust regressions were computed for the main effect (prayer > passive + news) and for estimating the correlations between the main effect and the self-report measures.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to the other two conditions, the prayer condition was characterized by: less self-reported craving; increased activation in left-anterior middle frontal gyrus, left superior parietal lobule, bilateral precuneus, and bilateral posterior middle temporal gyrus. Craving following prayer was inversely correlated with activation in brain areas associated with self-referential processing and the default mode network, and with characteristics reflecting AA program involvement.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  AA members' prayer was associated with a relative reduction in self-reported craving and with concomitant engagement of neural mechanisms that reflect control of attention and emotion. These findings suggest neural processes underlying the apparent effectiveness of AA prayer.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychiatry, Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse , New York University School of Medicine , New York , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Galanter
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , New York University , New York , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Zoran
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Josipovic
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychiatry, Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse , New York University School of Medicine , New York , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dermatis
authors.affiliation: c Department of Psychology , Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Columbia University , New York , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Jochen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychiatry, Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse , New York University School of Medicine , New York , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Mary Alice
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Millard
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000436:Alcoholics Anonymous; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D066249:Craving / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012067:Religion; D012074:Remission Induction; D000068356:Self-Control; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Alcoholics Anonymous; craving; fMRI; neural correlates; prayer