Prayer as an interpersonal relationship: A neuroimaging study

Abstract

This fMRI study describes neural correlates of prayer during periods in which people report in after-scan surveys that they felt the presence of God. Participants were part of a broad movement in modern Christianity that goes by various terms such as Pentecostal, charismatic, or spirit-filled. For them, the presence of God is a strong and immediate experience during improvised, personal prayer. Prayer was compared to imaginatively speaking to a loved one, a significant other in the person's life, and to a ground state of visualizing and naming a parade of animals. Results show an overlap between prayer and speaking to a loved one in brain areas associated with theory of mind, suggesting that the brain treats both as an interpersonal relationship. These brain areas are also associated with the default mode network, where the mind evaluates past and possible future experiences of the self. It is suggested that the high personal significance that participants attach to prayer experiences is due in part to their taking place in core areas of self-understanding.

Keywords:

• fMRI
• theory of mind
• default mode network
• self
• Christianity
• prayer

Acknowledgments

This study was supported in part by a grant of time on the 3T GE scanner as part of graduate training by the Dept. of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin. I am grateful to Dr. David Schnyer for help in designing the protocol and for advice on analysis. I am indebted to Dr. Tyler Davis for writing the computer program that ran the experiment in the scanner and for advice on data analysis and issues in this paper.