Reward, salience, and attentional networks are activated by religious experience in devout Mormons.
High-level cognitive and emotional experience arises from brain activity, but the specific brain substrates for religious and spiritual euphoria remain unclear. We demonstrate using functional magnetic resonance imaging scans in 19 devout Mormons that a recognizable feeling central to their devotional practice was reproducibly associated with activation in nucleus accumbens, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and frontal attentional regions. Nucleus accumbens activation preceded peak spiritual feelings by 1-3 s and was replicated in four separate tasks. Attentional activation in the anterior cingulate and frontal eye fields was greater in the right hemisphere. The association of abstract ideas and brain reward circuitry may interact with frontal attentional and emotive salience processing, suggesting a mechanism whereby doctrinal concepts may come to be intrinsically rewarding and motivate behavior in religious individuals.
a Department of Bioengineering , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , UT , USA.
Michael A
MA
Ferguson
b Department of Psychiatry , Massachusetts General Hospital , Boston , MA , USA.|c Department of Psychology and Center for Brain Science , Harvard University , Cambridge , MA , USA.
Jared A
JA
Nielsen
d Interdepartmental Program in Neuroscience , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , UT , USA.
Jace B
JB
King
e Department of Pediatrics , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , UT , USA.
Li
L
Dai
d Interdepartmental Program in Neuroscience , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , UT , USA.
Danielle M
DM
Giangrasso
f Department of Radiology , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , UT , USA.
Rachel
R
Holman
d Interdepartmental Program in Neuroscience , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , UT , USA.|e Department of Pediatrics , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , UT , USA.
Julie R
JR
Korenberg
a Department of Bioengineering , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , UT , USA.|d Interdepartmental Program in Neuroscience , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , UT , USA.|f Department of Radiology , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , UT , USA.
Jeffrey S
0000-0002-9669-3846
JS
Anderson
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D034682:Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology; D012146:Rest; D012201:Reward; D029181:Spirituality; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology
Religious neuroscience; functional MRI; reward; spiritual experiences