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- Title
Neural correlates of religious experience.
- Authors
Azari, N P; Nickel, J; Wunderlich, G; Niedeggen, M; Hefter, H; Tellmann, L; Herzog, H; Stoerig, P; Birnbacher, D; Seitz, R J
- 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.
- Publication
The European journal of neuroscience, 2001, Vol 13, Issue 8, p1649
- ISSN
0953-816X
- Publication type
Journal Article
- DOI
10.1046/j.0953-816x.2001.01527.x