IS PRAYER just another kind of friendly conversation? Yes, says , who used MRI to scan the brains of 20 devout Christians. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like talking to another human. We found no evidence of anything mystical.鈥�
Schj酶dt, of the University of Aarhus, Denmark, and colleagues, asked volunteers to carry out two tasks involving both religious and 鈥渟ecular鈥� activities. In the first task, they silently recited the Lord鈥檚 Prayer, then a nursery rhyme. Identical brain areas, typically associated with rehearsal and repetition, were activated.
In the second, they improvised personal prayers before making requests to Santa Claus. Improvised prayers triggered patterns that match those seen when people communicate with each other, and activated circuitry that is linked with the theory of mind 鈥� an awareness that other individuals have their own independent motivations and intentions (Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, ).
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Two of the activated regions are thought to process desire and consider how another individual 鈥� in this case God 鈥� might react. Also activated were part of the prefrontal cortex linked to the consideration of another person鈥檚 intentions, and an area thought to help access memories of previous encounters with that person.
The prefrontal cortex is key to theory of mind. Crucially, this area was inactive during the Santa Claus task, suggesting volunteers viewed Santa as fictitious but God as a real individual.
Previous studies have found that the prefrontal cortex is not activated when people interact with inanimate objects, such as a computer game. 鈥淭he brain doesn鈥檛 activate these areas because they don鈥檛 expect reciprocity, nor find it necessary to think about the computer鈥檚 intentions,鈥� says Schj酶dt.
He says the results show people believe they are talking to someone when they pray, an outcome that pleased both atheists and Christians: 鈥淎theists said it shows that it鈥檚 all an illusion,鈥� says Schj酶dt, while Christians said it was evidence that God is real.
鈥淏rain scans reveal that people believe they are talking to someone when they pray鈥�
Robin Dunbar at the University of Oxford points out that the study proves neither: 鈥淭his has nothing to do with whether God exists or not, only with subjects鈥� beliefs about whether God exists.鈥�
